The Foxx and The Shane
by InkMeYouVillian
Summary: A continuation of Not All Lone Wolves are Wolves and One Lonely Foxx. Set after season three but before the movies, we continue Zaylee and Eli's story as they grow up and fight a host of dangerous villains. Disclaimer: I do not own slugterra.
1. Episode 12: A Hero On Her Knees

**Ah! So I'm finally back at it! I hope you haven't missed me too much! Sorry it's taken the better part of forever, college is a pain. This also means I'm going to start work again on "Too Hott" so if you have parings you would like to see, put a reminder in my inbox and I'll get to them hopefully in April! Love you all so much and thank you for your support. Now, let's see what our hero has been up to!**

"You're not getting away with this." Zaylee's eyes narrowed at her opponent.

"I already have dear, and there's nothing you can do to stop me." The middle-aged woman leered at Zaylee from her balcony, surrounded by a menacing purple glow that shone from a huge computer behind her.

"Don't think so highly of yourself Erimda." The teenage vigilante growled. She closed her eyes, teleporting to the balcony with blaster raised, ready to shoot the villain.

"A little blaster, really? You think that's going to stop me?"

"I wouldn't underestimate me if I were you."

"I think you're the one underestimating me." Erimda grinned evilly. "I'll be sad to see you go; I've enjoyed these little skirmishes."

"Somehow I don't believe you."

"Don't blame you." Erimda smirked, shifting her shoulders so her cape gave just the slightest menacing movement. "You know, I had some scouts look into that Biotechnology Engineering and Enhancement company, and with your new _enhancements _shall we say, I think I know just what you need." One of Erimda's perfectly manicured purple fingernails tapped a white circle on the screen and suddenly Zaylee felt a sharp pain in her arm. She looked to see a dart had shot out of the computer console and embedded it in her bare arm. She glared back up at Erimda's pale face.

"How is this going to stop me?" She glared.

"You'll be dead before tomorrow." Erimda laughed. "And within the week all your little Shadow Clan buddies will be too."

"No…"

"And then all that land will be mine to control. I'll be the most powerful villain Slugterra has ever seen! No one will be able to stop me!" Erimda continued to laugh maniacally, her short bottle-blonde hair bouncing around her. "Have a nice fall dear." With that she touched her purple screen again and before Zaylee could load her blaster she was falling through the balcony. She transported herself back to her mecha. The evil witch had been serious. She could already feel the chemicals starting to take effect. She had to get to Xia or the Shadow clan fast. One of them would know how to save her.

She rode out as fast as she could, but her green eyes couldn't seem to focus on anything. She slowed her mecha to a stop, trying to focus on her surroundings long enough to get her bearings. She couldn't seem to use her abilities anymore to tell.

She had somehow stopped right in front of the Shane Gang's residence.

"How is that even possible?" Zaylee muttered. She hadn't talked to them since she got back from her trip in the western caverns almost two weeks ago. This new villain had been taking up most of her time. The Shane Gang wouldn't be able to help her, but they might be able to get her to the people she needed.

She stumbled to the door, feeling extremely weak. She hated it; she wasn't supposed to feel weak, let alone outwardly show it like she was being forced to do now. Zaylee slammed her fist on the door bell, unable to press it like a normal person.

"Hey Zaylee, how's it going?" Kord opened the door, his face transformed by worry when he saw his friend's state.

"I need to use your computer to call Xia." She rushed out, trying to sound as commanding as possible.

"Well sure… why?"

Zaylee just ignored him and forced her way to the huge computer that sat against the wall in the hideout's living room. She blinked a few times, trying to focus to find Xia's number in their call log.

"Zaylee!" Eli's excited voice echoed above her. Zaylee just winced at the loud noise.

"Hey Zaylee, why are you calling me from Eli's?"

"I got poisoned." Zaylee cut right to the chase, not even caring if Kord or Eli would freak out. "She said it had something to do with B.E.E and that it would kill the Shadow Clan. I need you to figure out what it was, and if possible find me an antidote."

"For you, anything." Xia smiled.

"Zaylee!" Eli's voice grated against Zaylee's now pounding headache. He no longer sounded excited now, he was clearly concerned. "What happened to your arm?"

Zaylee looked down at her arm where she was shot, seeing blue veins popping out in a spider web pattern spreading out from the initial injection site.

"Shit, that looks worse than I thought…" Zaylee murmured.

"What happened?" Eli asked again, letting Zaylee lean her head on his, as he looked at her sickly pale face.

"There's this villain, her name's Erimda," Zaylee took a deep breath, trying not to puke on her best friend. "She's been trying to take the Shadow Clan's lands, and I was pretty good at stopping her in the field, but then I tried to ambush her at her lair, and she shot me with this thing, I don't know what it is, but she said she was going to use it on the Shadow Clan too…"

"Well how is it affecting you?" Kord asked, confused.

"I'm not entirely sure, but I am really connected to them, remember?" She looked at Kord, reminding herself that she had yet to tell them about her teleporting abilities.

"We can take care of you." Eli offered, frowning as he wiped the sweat off of Zaylee's brow.

"No, I have to get to Mfalme… I need… to warn him…" Zaylee closed her eyes tightly, her headache now a screaming migraine.

"You're in no condition to go out." Eli insisted.

"I have to go." Zaylee repeated determinedly trying to get up, only to collapse into Kord's strong frame.

"What are we going to do?" Eli worried as Kord put Zaylee on their orange couch.

"Dude, you have that Shadow Talker thingy! Can't you call the Shadow Clan using that?"

"Yeah! Let me go get it!" Eli rushed to his room where the Shadow Talker was stashed in his pack. He put the contraption on his head, wincing as its power surged through his head.

_Shane… What do you want? _The leader's voice rang through his head.

"Zaylee needs your help" He responded.

Suddenly he could see the feet of Clan members standing in his room.

"She's downstairs." Eli told them. They disappeared to the living room and Eli followed them downstairs.

"Why is the Shadow Clan in our living room?!" Pronto called to Eli.

"Just let them do their thing." Eli grunted, shaking off the strange effects of the Shadow Talker and making his way back downstairs.

Mfalme stood over Zaylee, examining her state.

_It does not look good. _Razbo looked to Mfalme.

_No, but we may be able to keep her stable for an extended period of time._

Mfalme reached his hands out to Zaylee, putting two long fingers on her temple and two on the pulse point in her neck. Suddenly Zaylee jolted awake wide-eyed and sweating, breathing heavily as if she had just run a marathon.

_My child, what happened? _Mfalme frowned at his young ally.

_The woman seeking to take your lands, she poisoned me, and she's coming after you next._

_We won't let that happen. We'll stop her, and we will make sure you are okay as well._

_No! You don't understand!_

Mfalme removed his hands from Zaylee, letting her fall back into unconsciousness.

"What did you just do?" Kord almost yelled at the black creatures.

Mfalme just pointed to the Talker in Eli's hand.

"Huh, oh." Eli responded; putting the shadow talker back on.

_She is not doing well. _Mfalme informed the young Shane. _We are going to have to take her back to our territory to maintain her state so she does not get any worse. Her friend is working on an antidote, but we have to trust you to stop this villain. We must protect our lands, and protect your friend. Do not fail us Shane, this is a time when Slugterra needs you more desperately than you know._

"Uh… yes." Eli stammered, not completely sure of what Mfalme meant.

With that the two Shadow Clan members disappeared with Zaylee.

"What did they want?" Kord asked quietly.

"We have to stop whatever villain Zaylee was going after earlier."

"Did you see what they did to her though? How are we going to stand a chance?"

"We'll figure something out. From what I can tell, it doesn't affect normal people, just those who have a special connection to the Shadow Clan."

"Yeah, so what about that thing?" Kord pointed to the Shadow Talker.

"I'll just leave it at home." Eli shrugged.

"And let's say this chemical or whatever does work on humans, or I don't know, cave trolls?"

"Let's just hope it doesn't. But we need to do more research anyways. When Trix gets home we'll do some digging on who this person is and what not. And we need to call Xia back too and see what kind of progress she's made."

"Alright dude, wherever you wanna start."

Trixie looked up from the holograph Eli had opened on the table. "From the information I've gathered, and what Xia can tell us, the villain is basically stealing B.E.E's tech, and is planning to wage chemical warfare on the Shadow Clan. Why it's affecting Zaylee, I can't say. What we do know is that the only entrance to her lair is here." Trixie pointed to what looked like a hole in the ground, "I still have no idea how Zaylee got in. We're going to see what Pronto can dig, and shoot what he can't and hope for the best. If all goes according to plan we should land here." She pointed to what looked like a storage room. "This is where we believe the chemicals are being stored. We'll then have to get them out using a pulley system- it'll be difficult, but it's the only way. We'll take them to Xia later for neutralization and disposal. She's still working on the antidote for Zaylee, but it sounds like we'll have it in time."

"Good." Eli breathed.

"Eli, you need to be prepared if she runs out of time…"

"She won't." Eli snapped, "The Shadow Clan said they'd keep her stable. We just need to do our part. We move out in an hour; everyone get ready." He rushed off to his room, ready to do anything for his best friend. And because the other feelings he had for her weren't going away anytime soon.

If there was one thing Pronto was good at, it was digging. He had a tunnel big enough for even Kord to repel down reaching all the way to the top of the lair in less than five minutes. However the reinforced steel was something the skilled Molenoid could not penetrate.

"How stealthy do we have to be?" Eli asked.

"How many guards do you want to have to fight off?" Trixie responded.

"I'll take my chances." Eli shot Punch at the steel roof, jumping down as the sirens began to wail.

"Get the chemicals out of here! I'll hold them off!"

"Eli, are you crazy?! We don't know what they're packing in their arsenal!" Kord yelled at him.

"I'll be fine, just get the chems out of here!"

He raised his blaster as men clad in black suits with purple ties and purple insignias on their coat pockets ran into the room.

"Classy attire for fighters…" Eli mused as he began to shoot at them.

He took them out in less than two minutes which made even less sense. These guys were armatures, how Zaylee could have taken a hit that could kill her?

"Hey bud." Xia's voice suddenly came from behind Eli, almost making him jump out of his skin.

"What are you doing here?"

"You scare really easily ya know." She laughed at him. "I need to do some clean up. Whatever files Erimda has, she shouldn't, so I'm going to delete them off her computer. Wanna come with?"

"Sure. You guys doing good over there?" He called back to his teammates.

"Yeah, we've got this." Trixie gave him the thumbs up before continuing to load the hundreds of chemical barrels onto the pulley system.

Eli followed Xia cautiously down a hallway and into the main computer room of the lair. The screen emitted an eerie purple and was covered in all sorts of documents and equations.

"What is all this?" Eli asked quietly.

"Mostly stolen information," His friend responded, jamming a device into the keyboard. Moments later the screen was completely blank. "I can give you some of this info when we get home, but this needs to be destroyed. The database on here is too dangerous, especially in the wrong hands. Now let's get out of here."

Eli started back towards the chemical vault, but he heard the click of very high heels behind him. And he knew Xia did not wear heels.

"And who might you be?" A blonde woman asked as he turned around. "And more importantly, how did you get in here?" She raised her upper lip in disgust, her fingers resting on the keyboard of her large computer.

"That's her, that's Erimda." Xia whispered lowly.

Eli suddenly felt a wave of unbridled anger towards this bottle-blonde, make-up plastered, caped, middle-aged woman. He didn't even hesitate to shoot Joules at her, none of his usual banter able to express his emotions. All he knew, all he needed to know, was that if Zaylee died, it was this woman's fault.

Erimda easily sidestepped Joules, smiling as she clicked a button on the keyboard. She frowned, confused that nothing happened. She then looked to the screen, screeching in anger as she saw it completely blank. She turned back to the two teenagers seething. Xia just gave a sly grin before dragging the equally angry Eli off the balcony and back to the Chemical Vault. She shot her blue Infurnus, Luna, to create a firewall, separating her and the Shane Gang from the furious Erimda.

"That's the last one!" Kord called.

"Great, then let's get out of here!" Xia rushed towards the rope that would serve as their exit.

"I'm not done with her yet…" Eli growled, staring at Erimda through the wall of blue flames.

Xia looked at Kord. "Yeup, I've got him." He sighed, grabbing Eli by the shoulder and dragging him up the hole.

"We need to stop her." He growled as they got out of the lair.

"We did." Xia gestured to the wagon of various chemical containers Pronto had loaded. However, she could tell her friend was not convinced. She shrugged it off- she usually had the better judgment on these sorts of things. "Well, Pronto is going to follow me back to my lab and help me with these chemicals."

"You sure you want Pronto for that job?" Kord raised an eyebrow at her.

"Pronto is more than capable!" The Molenoid argued.

"He'll do just fine." Xia confirmed. "You guys need to get this to the Shadow Clan as fast as possible." She handed Eli the antidote in a small black steel box before riding off on her old mecha with Pronto following behind.

"Let's hurry." Eli commanded; his eyes glued to the black box.

He revved up his mecha, heading towards the closest Shadow Clan territory he knew, hoping that's where Zaylee would be.

Everything was going good so far, until Eli recognized two mechas that belonged to two of his least favorite people. Ex-Blakk Industries employees; Locke and Lode.

"Well, well, what do we have here brother?" Locke chortled, loading his blaster with a Hop Jack.

"I don't have time for you right now." Eli groaned, trying to move past the siblings without a fight.

"What, you think suddenly you're too good for us?" Locke spat.

"We've always been too good for you guys." Trixie retorted.

"Hey, that's not very nice!" Lode whined.

"You're right brother, it ain't. So you know what we're gunna do about it?"

"No, what?"

"We're gunna shoot them."

"Seriously?!" Eli exclaimed, dodging a Thresher. He seriously needed to get to Zaylee. Like now. He hopped off his mecha, loading Banger into his blaster, immediately followed by Joules and Burpy. He did not have time for this. But the brothers were still standing when the smoke cleared. Lode hit him straight in the chest with a Rammstone, knocking him clear off his feet and knocking the metal black box out of his pocket.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" Lode repeated his brother's words from earlier.

"It must be mighty important if the Shane Gang has it."

"Yeah, and I bet it'd get big bucks on the black market!" Lode exclaimed.

"Don't you dare." Eli glared at the two as he got up, blaster raised.

"Oh, just try and stop us." Lode smiled, holding a Neotox slug in his hand.

Eli narrowed his eyes, extremely peeved at this point. He shot a Bubbaleone at the two, the large bouncy pink bubble knocking them back a few feet, before shooting his Arachnet to grab the black box as he mounted his mecha. "Let's go!" He yelled to his friends as he switched to bike mode and rode away from the two idiot brothers as fast as he could.

Eli switched back to ride mode as soon as he got to the edge of the Shadow Clan's dark territory, hearing his friends do the same behind him. He pulled the Shadow Talker out of his pack, putting it quickly onto his head. He winced, but he was too focused on Zaylee to really care.

_Where is she. _He asked.

_Follow me. _Belatra walked up beside their mechas before going ahead of them.

Eli followed the female Shadow Clan member through the heart of the territory, just wishing she would go faster. Eventually they reached a building that Eli assumed was an infirmary. The gang dismounted and followed her inside the odd shaped building. Eli had to squint his eyes as they went inside. Everything was extremely dark, the only light offered from green lanterns on the wall. Belatra led them into a room and Eli felt his stomach drop. Zaylee looked much worse. The blue spider veins stretched across the entire right side of her body now, despite the Shadow Clan's mystic attempts to help her. Eli felt another surge of protective anger, but kept himself in check, not wanting to embarrass himself in front of the Shadow Clan.

He produced the Black Box to Mfalme, who took the syringe out, and pulled off the cap. He stuck the large needle into Zaylee's arm and pushed down the plunger in a strangely elegant way.

The gang frowned, feeling slightly unnerved. Eli watched intently as the veins seemed to creep back to the injection site, until disappearing completely. Zaylee's eyes fluttered open and she tried to sit up.

"How did I get here?" She groaned, holding her head, "I feel like crap." She let out another groan before falling back down onto the bed.

"Zaylee, you're okay." Eli breathed a sigh of relief, rushing over to envelop his friend in a less-than-platonic hug.

"I guess so." She mumbled, still slightly confused as she returned Eli's hug. "But it's not over yet." She looked up at Mfalme.

_No, it is not. But from what I understand, your friends have put our enemy quite a few steps back. _

Zaylee pulled back to look Eli in the eyes. "Thank you," She smiled, "For everything."

"I'm just glad you're okay." Eli smiled, hugging his best friend again.

**Thanks for reading! Don't forget to read and review!**


	2. Episode 13: All In

**Hi so life is busy but hopefully I can update regularly!**

**Read and Review please! Love you all!**

Xia had never seen Zaylee look happier. The two girls, along with Pulse and the Shane Gang were sitting around the coffee table in the hide out, sharing stories of what happened during Zaylee's long absence. Even though it had been a few months since, there seemed to be a never ending abundance of stories.

"I still can't believe you actually played in a professional game of Slug Ball. And won for that matter!" Zaylee laughed.

The Gang smiled proudly as Zaylee reached for another slice of meat.

"Tell us again about how you stopped the Night Clan for good!" Trixie prodded.

Xia noticed Zaylee's smile falter for a bit, but she happily retold the story about how she used her new Forge Smelter to save the day while the Shane Gang was off trying to shut down the portal between this world and the realm of the Dark Bane. Xia knew her friend still wasn't completely comfortable around Trixie, but she was happy to see how much her time away had helped. Not to mention the fact that Eli practically doted on her like a puppy now. Zaylee never made any motion to stop him, but she certainly wasn't going to make any moves of her own of course. It was for the best though. They had more than enough to worry about with B.E.E and Erimda who seemed to be Zaylee's most dangerous foe.

The Gang and Zaylee continued to laugh and joke until late in the night. Xia and Pulse had both left a bit earlier, but Eli and Trixie were both still questioning the teenage slinger about her numerous adventures. She didn't mind, but she still felt a bit uneasy explaining what happened with the Shadow Clan, mostly because she still didn't want to explain to them that she could teleport. Mfalme had told her to keep that quiet because it could lead to problems with her safety if things got out. And after her last fight with Erimda, she was more than willing to comply.

She was just about to bid her leave when an alarm went off on the large computer in the corner of the room.

"It's B.E.E," Trixie informed the rest of them. "Looks like they've stolen a bunch of slugs from a breeder."

Eli looked at Zaylee. "You in?"

Zaylee paused for a moment. She'd love nothing more than to crawl in her bed and sleep for a few days, but the look Eli had on his face was the same one he'd give her when they would play "slinger" in the back yard. It was a face she'd never be able to say no to. She gave a mischievous grin in return as she loaded her blaster. "I'm in."

The five rode towards the outskirts of Tusker Forks cavern, Zaylee's fast mecha in the lead, with Eli struggling to keep up beside her, and Kord behind her mumbling about how no matter what, he'd never be as good as Amicus.

"So what are we looking for?" Zaylee asked.

"B.E.E stuff." Eli shrugged. Zaylee rolled her eyes and looked to Trixie.

"Some sort of shipment mecha?" She shrugged. "All I know is what the person from the distress call said. The description of their uniforms pegs them as B.E.E and it sounded like there were a good number of them, but that's all the information we really have."

"For all we know, they could be out of the cavern by now." Kord put in with a shrug.

"Only one way to find out." Zaylee looked up at a tall rock formation nearby. She hopped off her mecha with grace and made her way to the rock. Eli and the gang followed as she began climbing up the formation with the ease and skill she had mastered with Bellatrix and Razbo.

"Do you expect Pronto to make it up there?" The Molenoid asked with annoyance.

"I don't even think I can," Eli murmured, awestruck. Instead of trying to follow Zaylee, he loaded Spinner into his blaster and shot the powerful Arachnet to the top of the rock. The rest of the team followed suit.

Zaylee was already crouched at the top of the tall formation, pulling down her goggles and scanning the cavern for any signs of the rouge scientist group. She wasn't still used to working with a team, but she was glad Eli wasn't butting heads with her as he usually did.

"See anything?" Kord asked.

Zaylee held up a finger, signaling him to wait as she squinted her eyes trying to look further across the cavern.

"They're making their exit on the other side." She said suddenly.

Eli was about to ask a question, but Zaylee was already halfway down the rock.

"Let's go." He told the rest of his team. He shot his Vinedrill down to the cavern floor and clambered down the long stalks it produced.

Zaylee was about to bolt across the cavern, but reminded herself that tonight, she was part of a team.

"How fast do your mechas go?" She asked Kord as the Shane Gang returned.

"They average about 80 in bike mode."

"Well let's see if they can go faster. B.E.E's got a huge head start on us."

Kord and the rest of the gang nodded understandingly. They morphed their bikes and fell behind Zaylee as she bolted off, the hydraulics on her PAN-T3R pumping at top speed as she sped through the cavern. The Shane Gang was slowly losing ground on the silver panther and her rider, and Eli felt a sudden fear in his stomach.

"Zaylee, these are the people Erimda stole those chemicals from." He yelled at her over his communicator.

"Yeah, so?"

"So isn't it possible that they are carrying the same chemicals?"

"Yeah, so?"

"So, they could kill you."

"They don't know about that." Zaylee shrugged, pushing her mecha into over drive as she neared the end of Tusker Forks Cavern.

"And what if they do?"

"I'll be fine 'lister." Zaylee smiled.

"And if you're not?"

Zaylee rolled her eyes. Since when did Eli become the motherly one? "We're together on this, aren't we?"

"Yeah, but that's not the point—"

"Just listen. I'm going to pull ahead and block off their escape. Then you're going to come from behind, blasters blazing and save the slugs."

"Hey, this is my gang, I call the shots around here."

Zaylee rolled her eyes again. Just like old times. "You in or you out?"

"I'm in."

Zaylee smiled triumphantly to herself and rode on.

"Just be safe." Eli's voice came to her over the communicator system again.

"Eli, do you know me at all?" She could see the mechas and transport truck now. Pushing the blue button on her control panel, she slowed her mecha so the engine would quiet as the Invisius goo release system turned her and her mecha invisible.

She used the claws and cat-like design of her mecha to ride on the sloped side of the pathway, effortlessly making it past B.E.E's caravan. She sped up just enough to give herself some room and shot her Rammstone at the top of the wall, collapsing the celling.

The henchmen made startled noises as a wall of rocks came down in front of them. Zaylee could to sense the Invisius goo starting to wear off, so she began unloading her arsenal at them, hoping she could do enough damage before they could start shooting their enhanced slugs at her. Soon enough though, she was using every trick Razbo and Belatra had taught her to evade the dangerous slugs. They were breaking the rock wall behind her much quicker than she had anticipated.

"I worked hard on that…" She whined jokingly to herself as she had another near miss with a chemically enhanced Rammstone.

Eli sped across the cavern, simultaneously worrying about saving the stolen slugs and Zaylee. She knew what they were capable of, so why was she running off so brashly like that on her own? She was usually much more sensible than that.

"Bro, chill." Kord seemed to read his thoughts. "She's a solo, remember? And we don't know all that happened to her when she was gone. She probably has even more tricks up her sleeve then when we first met her. There's nothing you can do about it, so just let it rest. Zaylee's a strong girl, she'll be fine."

"Yeah but-"

"B.E.E vehicles are coming into firing range." Trixie cut him off.

"Right. Get your Megamorph upgrades ready. It's our best bet against their slugs." Eli commanded, grabbing the accessory out of his backpack.

Zaylee frowned as the last of her make-shift rock wall crumbled. If they got past her and could head towards the larger roads, all would be lost.

"Need some help?" Eli called, dodging an ugly looking Grenuker slug as he ran to join her.

"Just in time 'lister." Zaylee smiled. She positioned herself next to her best friend and began to shoot at their adversaries with a renewed sense of energy.

"Kord, can you get those slugs free?" Eli called.

"We're on it." The Cave Troll nodded. He and Pronto fought their way through the mess of chemically enhanced slugs as Trixie supported Zaylee and Eli from the other side.

Kord fiddled with the locks on the transport truck when Pronto let out an ear-piercing scream and pulled the cave troll down just before he got hit with a large mutated Thresher.

"Thanks buddy."

"Yes you owe Pronto the biggest of thanks!" The Molenoid exclaimed proudly as he gestured to the large hole in the back of the transport truck that the Thresher had created.

"Well, it works," Kord shrugged as he hopped inside and began releasing the numerous containers of slugs.

"We're good here!" Kord yelled back to Eli a few moments later.

"Let's get out of here." Zaylee called.

"Why?" Eli argued. "We could get so much information out of them!"

"Oh suddenly you want to stay around and chat? How do you plan to capture them?" Zaylee countered, shooting an enhanced Tazerling out of the air.

"You've got one of these?" Eli held up his Megamorph energy core.

"Yeah, but I still think it'd be better to get out of here."

"Trust me Zay," Eli winked. "You said we were in on this together."

Zaylee rolled her eyes, but she couldn't help but blush as he used her nickname. She pulled her core out of her boot and attached it to her blaster. "Yeah, yeah, I'm in."

"Guys, what is that?" Trixie suddenly yelled.

Zaylee looked to where she was pointing to see the B.E.E henchmen pulling out a large blaster that resembled the machine guns she saw on T.V back in the surface world.

"Whoa…" Kord muttered, completely awestruck at the weapon.

"We don't stand a chance at something that can shoot that fast…" Zaylee muttered.

"We have to! We have to stop them! And stop that!" Eli pointed to the gun.

"No, we have to get out of here." Zaylee argued, the gun looking like a more formidable adversary than she was willing to put up with.

"We have our Megamorphs!"

"And their chemically enhanced slugs are more than we can handle!"

"I agree with Zaylee." Pronto piped up.

"Look Eli, you told me earlier how dangerous this was going to be. And you should know just as well as I do now when you're over your head. And this is a time where I have to insist that we are over our heads!" Zaylee yelled as the henchmen began loading a long string of cartridges with their enhanced slugs.

"I'm with Zaylee on this one too; we need to get out of here." Trixie put in. Zaylee had to bite back a sarcastic comment about the red-head agreeing with her. She wasn't really all that bad, but Zaylee still couldn't seem to let the past go as easily as Trixie had appeared to.

Zaylee cursed as her internal musings threw her off long enough to almost get knocked square in the face with a mutated Armashelt.

"I'm in." Kord sounded off as he narrowly dodged an enhanced Frost Crawler.

"We're all in." Trixie persuaded her leader.

"Alright then, we're out." Eli agreed and ran back to his mecha. Zaylee mounted hers as the henchman readied to fire on the teens.

"We need to get out of range!" She yelled as she tried to weave in and out of the onslaught of slugs that were being fired at her.

"Which way?" Eli called to his tracker.

"Bear left! They won't follow us there!"

Zaylee and Eli nodded in understanding and followed Pronto's directions. Zaylee led the way through the narrowing and winding pathway.

"Now turn right at the fork!" Pronto called. The team continued to follow the Molenoid's directions. Zaylee only hoped that practically putting her life in Pulse's boyfriend's hands was a good idea.


	3. Down Down Down to Davy Jones We Go

**Kinda left the last one on a cliff hanger huh? Hope you're enjoying the story and don't forget to review! **

Zaylee regretted ever trusting Pronto in the slightest as the claws of her mecha toed the edge of a sudden drop that went directly into a rushing river.

"The Flumes?" Eli wondered out loud.

"Yes, there is no way that B.E.E can follow us through here!"

Zaylee looked a bit confused. "How are we going to get through here?"

"Ski mode." Kord stated like it was the simplest explanation in the world.

"I don't have that." Zaylee muttered just loud enough to be heard over the approaching B.E.E henchmen and their gigantic machine gun.

"Well I really don't have the tools or the time to upgrade you now." Kord grimaced, worrying about their approaching doom.

"You can ride with me." Eli suggested.

Zaylee nodded and dismounted her mecha, turning the Invisius goo release system on as she did. It wasn't like she had time to argue. Eli held out his hand and hoisted her up onto Lucky. Zaylee swallowed thickly. Maybe she should have protested a bit.

"Hold on tight." Eli winked, putting Zaylee's hands around his waist. She was really beginning to regret this decision. It was too late though; they were descending into the flumes and riding away from the navy and white henchmen that were stuck on dry ground.

"So where's the next exit to the flumes?" Kord asked Pronto.

"Uh, ah well, you see…" Pronto wrung his hands together nervously.

"You don't know, do you?" Trixie glared at him.

"Oh my gosh…" Zaylee muttered, dropping her head in defeat on Eli's shoulder. She felt one of his hands move to rest on top of hers and stroke her skin lightly. Immediately she bolted upright, her cheeks burning red, praying that no one had noticed.

"We'll figure something out." Eli said confidently. "Let's just keep moving with the flow of the water. We'll find an exit eventually."

Zaylee doubted it with the way things were going so far.

The Gang continued riding through the flumes, looking for an exit back into one of the caverns. Zaylee felt they must have been at it for at least an hour and she was getting tired. It was probably closer to the time she usually got up than the time she usually went to bed. Her body sagged again into Eli's and he put his hand on top of hers again. Maybe if she could just get a few minutes of sleep…

"This part seems familiar…" Pronto suddenly spoke up, his voice sounding vague and mysterious.

"Yeah I'm getting a sinking feeling of déjà vu…" Kord muttered as the river began to pick up in speed.

"Make that falling!" Trixie corrected as their rides got caught in a current leading them straight to a huge waterfall.

Zaylee let out a defeated sigh. She just wasn't going to get her way today.

"Hold on tight!" Eli yelled over the roar of the waterfall.

For a moment Zaylee considered not doing it. Letting go and finding her way out of this wretched water disaster. But she knew she'd never make it out without a map. She clung tightly to Eli's waist and buried her face in his neck.

First it was a feeling of weightlessness, something not too unlike the feeling she got when she teleported. Save the wind rushing around her. Then the splash. The water came up to her knees and soaked into her boots before Eli's mecha bounced back up to the surface. She cursed as the cold water splashed up to her face.

"You okay?" Eli turned his neck to look at her.

"Peachy." She ground out.

Eli smiled and moved his hand to run over Zaylee's again. She immediately stiffened. "Hey, it'll be okay." He smiled. Zaylee mumbled something about being cold and loosened her grip on her friend.

"So what now?" Trixie spoke up.

"Pronto, you got us in this mess, how do we get out?" Eli looked at his tracker.

"We have… to go back up…" Pronto grimaced, wringing his hands together.

"Kord, can the glider mode get us back up?"

"Hard to say, it's not really meant for heights." Kord shrugged, mentally judging the distance. "And it's hard to say how the water would affect the propulsion system.

"Zay, you got any ideas? Shadow Clan secrets?"

Oh, she had plenty of secrets for sure, but she didn't feel comfortable revealing them to the Shane Gang. Even if they were her best friends. And it'd take more strength than she thought she had to get all of them back to the hide out.

"No," She lied.

Trixie opened her mouth to speak but was drowned out by the loud sound of a fog horn.

"Well, well, well, look what we have here." Mavolio Drake looked over the deck of his new ship down at the Shane Gang.

"Fish people?" Zaylee looked incredulously at the pirate. "I gotta admit 'lister, that's something in Slugterra I've never seen before."

Eli chuckled and lightly bumped his shoulder into Zaylee.

"Ay Princess! What are ye doin' down here?" The gilled creature sneered at Eli.

Zaylee tried to cover a laugh with a cough, but Eli's elbow to her ribs told her she had not done a good job.

"We were just making our way out of here." Pronto's voice waivered as he yelled up to the large ship.

"Well what were ye doin' here in the first place!" The pirate yelled back.

"Princess…" Zaylee continued to snicker under her breath.

"Leaving." Eli repeated firmly.

"Eh! This is my territory, not some fancy short cut!" Mavolio yelled.

"So, there's not like there's anything you're going to do about it!" Trixie yelled, wishing he'd just let them go on their merry way.

"Is that a challenge?" Drake glowered, raising a hand that signaled to his crew to load the cannons.

"You have got to be kidding me." Zaylee groaned. Today was just getting worse and worse.

"Let's move!" Kord yelled, turning his mecha away from the ship desperate to get out of firing range.

Zaylee heard the unmistakable noise of slugs hitting velocity behind her. If only she had her own mecha. Eli's dodging skills were sub-par and made her extremely nervous as they had another near miss.

"So what's his deal?" Zaylee spoke up.

"He's probably still sore about losing his 'Mimky'." Eli shrugged.

"His what?" Zaylee asked, confused.

"It's a slug-type that can mimic whatever type of slug you shoot. In my opinion though, it looks more like a salamander. But it looks like he got a new ship." Eli chuckled as he dodged another slug.

"Yeah, with state-of-the-art cannons!" Kord griped.

"Incoming!" Trixie yelled as an Aquabeek flew into the water with such an impact it created waves high over the Shane Gang's heads.

"You wouldn't happen to know how to surf, would you?" Zaylee asked her friend.

"Not necessarily…" Eli mumbled, looking up at the towering wave that was already swallowing Pronto.

Zaylee swatted his hands away from the handles of his bike, and tapping into her Shadow Clan powers, turned the bike to catch and ride the wave. She sensed her other friends get tossed by the giant wave, but felt only a little remorse, her only desire to not get soaked for a second time that day. She rode out the end of the wave and relaxed, dropping her hands from the bike's controls.

"Where'd you learn that?" Eli asked, amazed.

"Surface world, summer vacation." She lied.

Kord sputtered as he struggled to remount his bike.

"They're coming for us again!" He yelled.

"Pronto we need another way out of here!" Eli yelled.

"I told you, the only way to go is up!"

"We don't have another choice!" Trixie yelled, shaking her water-logged blaster as if that would miraculously fix the thing before Drake's ship came about again and began firing again.

Eli craned his neck to look at Zaylee as if he needed her approval.

"It's worth a shot." She said needlessly, shrugging her shoulders.

"Then let's move! Quickly!" Eli commanded, turning his ride around. Back towards the waterfall, and back towards Mavolio's large ship.

"Does anyone's blaster work?" He called to his team.

"You and Zaylee are the ones who have managed to stay the driest." Kord said.

"I've got it." Zaylee affirmed as Drake's crew began loading the cannons again. She pulled out her blaster, checking to make sure that it was indeed in working order, before loading her Flaringo and shooting at the onslaught of Aquabeeks and Makobreakers that were being shot at the Shane Gang.

"Hate to complain," Zaylee mumbled in Eli's ear as she barely avoided a chomping Makobreaker, "But is there any way this thing could go faster?"

"I'll try my best for you."

Zaylee faltered for a moment before cursing and ducking to avoid an intense jet of water. She was reading much far into what he was saying. She needed to forget that they were sharing a mecha, and so much personal space, and focus on the fight in front of her with a fish-pirate-thing with some sort of obvious vendetta for her friends.

That was something she thought she'd never say.

"Get ready to switch modes!" Kord yelled, zooming to the front of the gang as they neared the waterfall. When he was almost on top of it, he pulled up on his mecha, pulling the thing into the air and switching to glide mode. The rest of the gang followed suit, and began flying up the side of the waterfall.

Zaylee felt Eli's mecha begin to wobble underneath them.

"Kord?" Eli's voice was colored with concern.

"This is what I was worried about!" He yelled, his voice sounding very fearful. "The water doesn't have enough tension to support the propulsion systems!"

"Well, what are we going to do?" Trixie asked as their mechas began to shake uncontrollably.

Zaylee braved a look down to see the ship almost directly below them.

"Land on the ship!" She yelled.

"Are you crazy!" Kord yelled back. "Last time that happened we were almost Drake's permanent slaves."

"Let me deal with the Pirate! You guys figure a different way out of here!"

"I've dealt with Drake before, let me handle him." Eli muttered.

"Not the time to argue. I've got this." Zaylee growled in his ear as they finally lost their balance and the mecha began to tumble quickly towards Mavolio's ship. Eli looped the machine around until it was upright and gliding safely to the main deck- if landing on Drake's ship could be considered safe.

"Ay so first ye think ye can swim in me waters and now ya have the gall to land on my ship!?" Drake screamed, stomping over to the Shane Gang.

"Bit of a territorial one huh?" Zaylee smirked, dismounting from Eli's mecha.

"And who might you be missy?" Drake sneered at the teenager.

"Foxx, Zaylee Foxx. The baddest and the best you'll ever meet." She cocked her hip to one side and gave her best defending smirk.

"Bad is for sure!" One of Mavolio's crew men pointed at her tattoos. Zaylee just shot the creature a sneer before returning to stare challengingly at the assumed captain of this ship.

"Ay brother! What is going on here on me ship!" Another large fish-creature stormed out of the captain's quarters.

"Your ship? This is my ship _Brutale_!" Mavolio shot back.

Zaylee quickly recalculated her plans as the two assumed captains had a staring contest of their own. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Pronto sneaking off to what was assumed to be where the maps were hidden. She felt a wave of relief surge through her, but she kept her stance.

"I paid for it!" Mavolio snarled at Brutale.

"Barely! I paid for more than half of it! And besides, I'm older _brother_."

"Old as dirt, yeah! And unfit to run my ship since you were the one that almost lost my Mimky!"

"You were the careless one that almost lost my Mimky! And it was mine to begin with!"

Zaylee fought the urge to roll her eyes. She could see something red and skink-like peek out from behind Mavolio's shoulder- this "Mimky" everyone kept talking about. It was what she had to be aware of if she wanted her plan to work.

"Of with ye!" Brutale waved his brother away. "And throw the land lubbers in the brig!"

"Now hold on here." Zaylee finally stepped in, sizing up her opponents.

"And who might ye be?" Brutale snarled.

"Zaylee Foxx, the baddest and best in the land." She repeated, waving a hand and rolling her eyes as she did so.

"Is that so?" Brutale sneered.

"Quite. And I think my friends and I would appreciate it if you'd let us go on our merry way and get out of here."

"And why would I be inclined to do that?"

_Maybe because I think I've been up for close to 48 hours… _Zaylee fumed to herself. "Because we surely can't be of any use for you."

"Oh I think I could post an incredibly high ransom for a Shane. And I'm sure the rest of you could fetch a bit of gold too."

Zaylee opened her mouth, offended by the Pirate's assumption. She hid her hurt quickly though, stepping forward and widening her stance to look as threatening as possible.

"Well how about a deal then, you like those?"

"Ay missy, but don't wager something you're not prepared to lose." Mavolio grinned at her.

"That's the thing, I don't lose." Zaylee lowered her gaze menacingly. "I challenge both of you to a duel. I lose, we stay here as your prisoners. I win, you let us go."

"Ye sure you want to make that steep of a deal?" Brutale almost laughed. "There's no way ye can win against both of us."

"I told you I don't lose."

"She won't be alone." Eli spoke up from behind her.

"No, I will be." Zaylee glared back at Eli. She suddenly had this overwhelming urge to prove to him that she was more than capable and that he should just hand her the reins every once in a while.

"If ye insist missy." Mavolio grinned reaching to grab Mimky.

"Hey! I should get to shoot Mimky!"

Zaylee smiled. This was exactly what she was hoping for. Quietly she began reaching for her boot.

"And why should you get to shoot Mimky! You gave him to me!"

Theoretically, the salamander wouldn't be able to match a Megamorph slug because it wouldn't be able to achieve the same velocity.

"So? I'm captain! I should get to shoot him!"

She grabbed the blaster accessory out of her boot.

"Who said you were captain! I'm captain!"

Zaylee palled. The high speed energy core had shorted out when they had plunged into the water. She was going to need a new plan to beat the bickering brothers now.

"Yeah, well a terrible one at that!"

Zaylee caught eyes with the salamander-thing that looked more evil and conniving than its owners. She glared it down, trying to unlock its secrets and weaknesses. If only she could communicate with slugs like her Shadow Clan friends.

"Yeah, but I'm leagues better than you!"

Zaylee continued staring the almost-slug down, trying to tap into her Shadow Clan abilities to help her out. As long as Mavolio and Brutale kept arguing, she could keep buying time. She could sense every inch of the ship. Pronto searching for a map, Kord looking for a life boat. Trixie and Eli shifting nervously behind her, the crew maintaining the ship's course.

"Ye'll never be as good as a captain as I've been!"

Quietly she motioned at Trixie. "I need you to get the course of the ship to go 20 meters west." She whispered, praying she wouldn't be noticed by the arguing aquatic creatures. Trixie nodded and quietly made her way to the helm.

"Yeah, but at least I didn't lose an entire ship and crew because of some teenage rag-tag gang!"

Zaylee smiled, everything was falling into place. She could still prove to Eli that she was plenty capable and in control. Maybe for once he'd get off her back about calling the shots every once in a while. That was all she wanted after all. To not be arguing like the two fish-men in front of her.

"At least I didn't betray my kin for Blakk!"

The two pirates were chest-to-chest, ready to blast each other apart. As much as Zaylee would have liked that outcome, she had a point to prove.

"Gentlemen, ready whenever you are." She spoke up, making the two pirates turn their anger on her. Without another word, Mavolio loaded Mimky into his blaster and Brutale loaded a Makobreaker. Zaylee smiled widely. Everything was going according to plan. Brutale shot the Makobreaker quickly, and Zaylee reacted with perfect timing. She shot her Dinorawr, knocking the Makobreaker off course at the exact time Mavolio shot his retaliation to Zaylee's shot. The Mimky, confused on which form to take, chose the Makobreaker, and ended up jaw locked with Brutale's slug.

"This is your fault!" Mavolio roared at Brutale.

"Mine! It's all yours! If you had waited to shoot!" Brutale spat back.

"So, does this mean I win?" Zaylee smirked at her opponents.

"In theory, yes." Mavolio shrugged.

"But if you think we're actually going to let you go, think again." Brutale sneered.

"Never. Trust. A. Pirate." Mavolio grinned.

"Of course I wouldn't." Zaylee grinned back. She nodded her head in the direction of the helm where Trixie had secured course for a huge outcropping of grey, sharp, deadly rocks.

"You're crazy!" Brutale screamed.

"I prefer the term genius." Zaylee smirked as Kord returned with a life boat and Pronto reappeared with a map. "But I'm sure you guys can swim, right?" Her grin got even wider as she loaded her blaster with her Rammstone and with a double hit knocked both the pirates into the water.

"Never trust a Foxx." She smirked over the railing. "The baddest and the best you'll ever meet."

"Let's go!" Kord yelled as the ship quickly approached the rocks.

"Coming!" Zaylee yelled with a triumphant smile as she ran across the deck and jumped into the lifeboat. Kord cut the supports and they splashed down to the water just in time as the ship wrecked itself on the outcropping. Brutale's and Mavolio's screams of anger and grief could be heard as the Shane Gang rode the boat to the new heading Pronto had secured with the map.

Zaylee's proud smile quickly disappeared as she looked over at her best friend. He was clearly upset about having his thunder completely stolen from him if the furrowed eyebrows and protruding lower lip were any indication. She scooted over to him where he was leaning against his mecha.

"Hey, don't look so down about it." Zaylee tried, putting an arm around his shoulder. She wasn't so good at the whole comforting thing; she only hoped she didn't make it worse.

He only attempted to shrug her shoulder off. She held fast, hoping that their friends wouldn't get too uncomfortable from this exchange. She pulled him closer, suddenly realizing the stakes she had really put up in that duel. She couldn't stand Eli being mad at her, especially given her own unadmitted feelings for him. And she couldn't lose his allegiance. As much as she hated it, the fact was she needed Eli to help her out more often than she liked to admit.

"Next time, the lead is all yours, promise." She whispered, even though she knew it'd be a tough promise to keep.

"It's ok." He mumbled. "Just try and share next time, alright?"

"I'll do my best for you." She repeated his words from earlier that had made her heart race. He looked up at her, smiling, and in his shining eyes she saw the young kid full of hope that had been her best friend all those years ago, as well as the world weary hero that he had become- and that she had taken a strong liking for. She forced herself to look away and drop her embrace. Eli righted himself as well, clearing his throat, alerting his teammates- as if they had not been secretly paying attention the whole time.

"Well let's get home and get some rest shall we?"


	4. Episode 15: A Daring Escape

**Sorry for the delay between the last chapter and this, I've been trying to do every other day, but as I'm sure you have noticed, these chapters are a bit longer than what I've written before. I'll try and be as consistent as possible, but with the end of the school year close, I make no promises. Other reminder- PM me if you want your OC to be featured in the Too Hott fic! Anyways, enjoy!'**

Zaylee rode far ahead of the Shane Gang. She had gone on countless missions with the Shane Gang over the past two weeks, but it had done nothing to subdue the lone wolf lifestyle she had adopted over years of saving Slugterra by herself.

"Be careful!" Eli's voice came in on her communicator.

"I'll be fine." Zaylee said for what felt like the millionth time.

"What if they have that machine gun?"

"You're telling me that after dealing with Blakk's Gatler that you're worried of a little machine gun?"

"I'm worried for you."

"Eli, I'll be fine." She repeated.

Zaylee thought she heard Eli mutter something about her stubbornness but she paid it no heed. They had been getting better at sharing the control when they went on missions together, but whenever B.E.E was involved Eli just seemed to have it in his head that the evil scientist were something she was incapable of handling. She and her best friends had been keeping the organization at bay with overwhelming success before Eli even knew the organization's name.

The band of henchmen surrounding the transport mecha was quickly coming in firing range. She loaded her blaster with her Armashelt, K.O, and aimed at the head of the closest navy and white donned henchman.

"Remember, don't shoot the transport mecha. If those chemicals get into the atmosph-"

"I know Eli. I was there this morning." Zaylee almost growled as she had to readjust her aim thanks to his distraction. She was sitting next to him when Xia had interrupted a waffle breakfast at the Shane Hideout to inform them that B.E.E was moving a large shipment of a highly dangerous and unstable compound to one of their hideouts. Zaylee had wanted to track them and find out where the hideout was, but Eli had insisted on taking them out as soon as they found them and calling in Xia and Pulse to neutralize the compounds.

"I'm just saying…" Eli's voice came in over the speakers again.

Zaylee bit her tongue, trying not to yell at Eli, but the darn boy just wouldn't let her shoot. If he kept this up he'd give away her position and then she'd have fifteen henchmen with chemically enhanced slugs firing at her. She turned off her communicator and re-aimed at the nearest henchman to her left. K.O took the man out with ease, but he lacked stealth and the other henchmen were now very aware of their opponent. She loaded Pummel her Rammstone, and shot the next guard on her right. She eased up on the throttle to keep her from getting too close to the henchmen as she aimed for the next closest one with her Bubbalone, encasing the man and his mecha in an inescapable pink sphere.

"Zaylee! Why did you turn your communicator off?" Eli was suddenly beside her with a very annoyed look on his face.

"Because you kept distracting me!" She yelled. She had to quickly dodge an enhanced Hop Rock as Eli's yelling alerted the rest of the henchmen.

"You deal with the rest of the guys back here; I'm going to take care of the guys in the front!" She yelled, creating a zig-zag path to the front of the caravan.

"I'm coming with you!" Eli yelled.

Zaylee rolled her eyes. It seemed like ever since her last scuffle with Erimda over a month ago, he just wouldn't let her go off on her own. And he complained that she mothered him.

"If you can keep up." She muttered under her breath as she punched the throttle on her mecha, the sudden spike in gas giving the hydraulics enough power to clamber up and across the cavern wall.

When she was just in front of the squad, she flipped her mecha and landed with a loud thump in front of them.

"Even mechanical cats land on their feet." She laughed at the clearly surprised henchmen. Two shots later they were out, leaving the two henchmen who were controlling the transport mecha.

She loaded Rexy in her blaster, hoping that the slug could pull off a double hit for her. She shot him, but one of the henchmen had enough time to load his blaster with a chemically enhanced Bubbaleone and trap her best slug. She cursed, quickly reloading and shooting her Acus next, but he was also knocked out of the air with one of their slugs.

"This shouldn't be happening." She muttered aloud. "These are some of my best slugs." Worry and fear taking over, she momentarily thought about teleporting out, but she saw the Shane gang out of her eye and quickly abandoned the idea.

"They have multiple machine guns on the back of that thing!" Kord yelled.

As if on cue, one of the henchmen Zaylee had been fighting pulled a machine gun out of the body of the mecha. Two more henchmen pulled around the large chemical truck with machine guns mounted on their mechas.

"Oh we are so screwed." Trixie muttered.

"No guys, we can do this!" Eli tried to rally his gang.

As much as Zaylee wanted to agree with Trixie for once, she tried to back Eli up.

"Let's do this." She nodded to her best friend, pressing her back against his. The two quickly began shooting everything they had at the multiple machine guns. Their friends followed, trying to get a shot at the large silver monstrosities, but every slug they tried got shot out of the air by the battalion of slugs coming from every angle.

"I'm low on slugs!" Trixie called out.

"Pronto is too!"

"What about you?" Eli asked Zaylee.

Zaylee looked down at her belt grimly. "Six." She informed her friend.

"We need to retreat!" Kord called.

"How?" Zaylee yelled, exasperated. "Unless you want a repeat of the last time we did this!"

"That idea sounds better than this!" Eli yelled back.

Then Zaylee's Shadow Clan senses kicked into high gear and everything else fell away. She was suddenly in inescapable danger. All three machine guns were pointed at her; since she was the teen who had effortlessly evading every slug that came near her. If she didn't teleport out now she'd be done for. But it couldn't come to that. Not yet. Her teleportation had to be kept a secret. Secrets were there to protect the people that mattered most.

She could sense all three slugs hitting velocity without even seeing any of them. Two chemically enhanced Tazerlings and a nasty looking Hop Rock. If she could just move her body in the right way- but there was no escape and the slugs were closing in on her fast. She heard Eli call out her name somewhere, but it was too late. She closed her eyes and braced for impact.

And then everything went black.

Zaylee woke up feeling like every nerve in her body was on fire. She could hear groaning close to her and the terrified squeaking of slugs not too far past that.

The realization hit her of what happened and she shot up quickly. Too quickly as her entire world began to spin and black dots danced before her eyes. She closed her eyes and did a mental check of everything. No blaster, no goggles, and no slugs. She was screwed. She slowly looked up, recognizing she was in some sort of cell.

A pained groan made her look to her left. She saw Kord holding his arm tightly.

"Kord! What happened?"

Kord blinked at her voice in surprise. "Oh hey, are you okay?" He asked.

"Sort of," She shrugged with a grimace. "What happened?" She asked again.

"We all went down." Kord sighed. "Hard. You and Xia were right, they really show no mercy."

"I'm aware. What happened to your arm?"

"I think it's dislocated. But you should check on everyone else first."

"They'll be fine." She shrugged, scooting over to him and taking his large shoulder between her small hands. "It's definitely dislocated. I'm going to pop it back in place for you."

"Yeah, sure okay, just give me a count down or- OW!"

"There, that should do it." Zaylee grunted after the large shoulder gave a resounding pop.

"Hey, that does feel a lot better, thanks."

"Yeah, I got pretty good at treating wounds and stuff before Paeon came along."

"That little slug would come in handy right about now." Kord sighed.

"Yeah, or your little guardian slug as well."

Kord chuckled as he slowly rotated his shoulder to test the joint.

Zaylee looked off into the corner absorbed in thought. She could hear slugs chirping not too far away from their cell. If Paeon was one of them she could transport to get him and heal everyone in no time. Not to mention her other slugs could get the Shane Gang out of the cell with no effort. She looked back to Kord. The cave troll was a good guy; she considered him one of her closest friends. But she had yet to reveal her teleporting abilities to anyone. Not Xia or Pulse or even Dana. She needed to know she could trust Kord to keep her secret until the time was right. Desperate times called for desperate measures though, and she could only hope he'd keep her secret, because it was quite possibly the only way they could get out of here.

She closed her eyes and concentrated on the noise of the slugs. Nothing. _I want to go to the slugs, I want to go to my slugs. _She repeated the mantra like the first time she had teleported. Still nothing. She felt a nervous drop of sweat trickle down her back. She tried to tap into her other senses, closing her eyes tighter trying to see everyone in the cell, the layout of the fortress they were in, the people and slugs within the building, but nothing. Just blackness. She opened her eyes, completely scared. Something was wrong. Terribly wrong. And she had no idea what it was.

"Zay, you okay?" Kord's voice shook her out of her terror. "You look a little spooked."

"Yeah, no, I'm fine. Let's just wake the others." Zaylee forced a smile, but it was clear her friend didn't buy it. Still, he leaned over to Pronto and shook the Molenoid roughly.

"Hey what was that for!" He yelled at the Cave Troll.

Kord just rolled his eyes and set the Molenioid back down.

Gently, Zaylee shook Trixie and Eli's shoulders, some relief filling her when she saw Eli's eye's flutter open.

"Ugh, my head." Eli groaned, bringing a hand to his forehead. "Where are we?"

"A cell, presumably in a B.E.E hideout." Zaylee informed them.

"How are we going to get out of here?" Trixie asked as she sat up.

"I don't know." Zaylee shook her head. She looked down to Eli, but the Shane still had a hand over his eyes.

"I could try and break the door down." Kord offered.

"Don't strain yourself. You're already hurt as it is. Besides, I don't think we want that kind of attention." Zaylee sighed.

"So then what?" Trixie asked the older teen.

"Pronto will get us out of here in no time!" The Molenoid declared proudly, preparing his hands to dig as he jumped head first into the cold steel floor of the cell.

"Or not…" He mumbled; his face compressed to the floor.

"We'll think of something guys." Eli tried to smile while sitting up, but it turned into a grimace and he collapsed. Zaylee felt a strange pang in her heart and moved to place Eli's head in her lap.

"We all got hit hard." Trixie sighed. "I couldn't see very well, but I think one of their Rammstones got him in the head." She informed Zaylee. From the minimal light that filtered through their cell, Zaylee could see a large bruise stretching across the right side of Trixie's collar bone before disappearing beneath her green shirt.

"It was just all so fast, and we just couldn't stop them." The red-head's voice broke, and Zaylee offered her arm to embrace the younger girl. Kord and Pronto were both looking at her like they expected her to tell them what to do next, but Zaylee was at a complete loss. She had begun relying so much on the abilities she had developed while in the lower caverns that she had no clue what to do now. She stroked Eli's hair, trying to think, but nothing came to mind. Suddenly the slug's nervous chirping got louder and everyone in the cell tensed up. A pair of heavy boots clunked down the hallway, getting closer to the Gang's cell. Zaylee instinctively pulled Trixie closer to her and put a protective hand across Eli's chest as if she actually could protect them. She felt another nervous drop of sweat make its way down her back as the footsteps got closer and closer and the slug's chirping get louder and angrier. Suddenly a face blocked the light that came through the small window in their cell.

"Good, you're awake." A thick German accent greeted them. "That means we can proceed with the testing."

"What testing?" Kord stammered in a worried tone.

"Oh you'll see." The scientist cackled. He clunked off, but they could hear him calling various orders to people to get machines with strange names ready and to procure certain amounts of chemicals with even stranger names.

"This can't be good." Trixie muttered as she sat up and wiped her eyes.

"We'll figure a way out of here." Zaylee nodded resolutely, now twice as determined to find a way out. She gingerly placed Eli's head on the cold floor, biting her lip when she saw him wince. Standing up, she made her way over to the small window at the top of the thick steel door. Peeking out, she could see all their slugs trapped in containers across the hall.

They all chirped excitedly when they saw her, but she quickly hushed them by placing a finger to her lips. The right side of her torso was quickly tiring from standing. Sinking to the floor she tried to think. She had no connection to her Shadow Clan abilities, all of the slugs were trapped, and the Shane Gang was in no condition to fight their way out of here. She wasn't a leader, and this wasn't exactly the time she wanted to start becoming one. Her options were extremely limited and desperation was beginning to work its way on her nerves making it hard to think.

"Kord, do you think you could take out a couple of men?" She looked desperately at her blue friend. Her voice was quiet and shook a little.

"Depends on whether or not they're armed." He answered with a dejected shrug.

"Could you take them out before they can load their blasters?"

"Dunno."

"All this takes is some Molenoid finesse." Pronto spoke up.

"Don't worry, I'm getting there." Zaylee looked his way with an empty smile.

"What about Eli?" Trixie questioned. "He can't do anything right now."

"Hopefully we can change that." Zaylee put a protective hand on her best friend again.

"Okay, I think I have a plan, listen well though, because we don't have much time…" Zaylee whispered, finally coming up with a hackneyed plan to try and save their butts.

Already outside heavy footsteps were heading towards the Shane Gang's cell followed with an array of navy and white henchmen armed with electric rods, chemically enhanced slugs and modified blasters.

"It is time to begin the human experiments!" The scientist from before exclaimed.

"What about the slugs? They've got some pretty rare ones." One of the henchmen said in a gruff voice.

"They can wait! These experiments will be much more exciting!" The scientist crowed.

The henchmen nodded, following the frizzy-haired scientist the rest of the way to the cell where his latest experiments were held.

"Let's begin with zero-seven-five!" He exclaimed looking down at a clip board.

One of the henchmen spun a wheel that undid the complicated series of bolts that held the door shut tight.

"Ah yes, now you see, why start with experiment number one, when you can start with me?" Pronto popped out the door, startling the group. "As you can see, I am the most interesting specimen here." He smiled proudly.

"Hey, move." One of the henchmen shoved his electric rod at Pronto.

"How about you move?" Kord grinned as Pronto pushed the door the rest of the way open to reveal the large cave troll as he swung a punch knocking out four of the 12 henchmen.

"Subdue them!" The Scientist yelled as he jumped out of the way.

The henchmen began to load their blasters but it was too late. A second swing from Kord's large arm took out another three, while Trixie jumped out to take out two more and Zaylee dispatched the last three.

"I won't let you escape!" The scientist sneered, reaching beneath his white lab coat to grab a gaudy looking navy and black blaster.

Zaylee's palled, but she moved quickly, grabbing a blaster off one of the unconscious henchmen. Her slug met the scientist's in a volatile blast of unearthly noises and noxious gasses.

"Kord hit him now!" Trixie yelled.

The Cave Troll complied, and before the scientist had an opportunity to reload his blaster, Kord knocked him across the hallway.

"Quick, we don't have much time." Zaylee wheezed, clutching her side. She dragged herself over to the slug containers, pulling at the tops of as many as she could reach to release the gang's slug.

"Paeon!" She called hoarsely as she sunk to the ground. The little blind slug hopped over to her, his face a mix of joy and concern. She loaded the slug in her borrowed blaster and shot Trixie, Kord and Pronto. Paeon returned to her and nudged at her side, trying to get close enough to her damaged chest to heal her.

"Worry about me last little buddy. We've gotta get to Eli first." She picked the slug up and stumbled back to the open cell.

"See if you can find our gear!" She called to the rest of the Shane Gang. She reached Eli and cradled his head in her hands again. He was deathly pale and was obviously in an immense amount of pain. Her heart felt a tight pang, but she shook the feeling away.

Zaylee quickly pulled herself up on the door and steadied herself, taking aim at Eli. Paeon's green energy filled the small cell, and Zaylee could feel some of her slug's healing effects reaching her as she sunk back to the ground in exhaustion.

Paeon hopped over to her, looking tired but still concerned.

"Don't worry about me right now little buddy, I'm fine enough to fight." She smiled, stroking the pad of her thumb over his head.

"Hey bud, how you feeling?" Kord asked Eli as he re-entered the cell holding Eli and Zaylee's blasters.

"Better." Eli affirmed as he propped himself up on his elbow.

Burpy hopped over to him, smiling as he took his place on Eli's shoulder.

"We need to get going, and fast. There's nothing good about this place." Zaylee spoke up.

"We could try and take this place down while we're here." Eli offered.

Zaylee raised her eyebrows in disbelief. She had wanted to do that originally, and here was Eli trying to be all gusto when they were beaten to hell.

"Eli, I know you've had a great little nap there, but the rest of us are ready to go home and call it a day." Trixie spoke up, drained from the day's events.

Zaylee nodded in agreement. "We'll come back with reinforcements. At least we know where this place is now."

"Well not yet." Kord reminded them. "We still have to get out of here for that.

"And I suggest we hurry!" Pronto yelled as more footsteps could be heard down the hall.

Eli nodded as Kord helped him and Zaylee up.

"We need to get back to our rides and out of here." Eli affirmed everyone's ideas out loud.

"Any suggestions as to where they are?" Trixie asked.

"I will lead us to our mechas!" Pronto declared. He sniffed the air, wafting it to his nose. He looked up proudly, but his grandeur quickly deflated. "Unfortunately, they are that way," he pointed a limp finger in the direction of an army of navy and white henchmen.

"Only one choice then." Eli shrugged, loading his blaster.

Zaylee grimly set her jaw, her side still in a significant amount of pain. She didn't hesitate to send her Vampenkyeko across the army. The men dropped almost immediately, but unfortunately it did nothing to slow the slugs, and the team had to jump out of the way to avoid several chemically enhanced Threshers and Armashelts.

"Let's keep moving!" Eli yelled. Pronto picked up the trail again, and they quickly followed him down long stark white corridors with various blinking control panels and thick steel doors. A few sharp turns later after not running into any more henchmen put a heavy feeling in Zaylee's stomach. And not just because she felt as blind as a bat without her Shadow Clan senses.

"There are surveillance cameras everywhere. Why isn't anybody else attacking us?" She wondered out loud, subconsciously drifting closer to Eli.

"Maybe we already defeated all of them." Trixie shrugged.

"Impossible." Zaylee reprimanded the younger girl.

"Ah, we just scared them off." Pronto declared with a wave of his hand.

"Doubtful." Eli muttered grimly.

"Or maybe they're waiting for us all at the end." Kord grimaced.

"Unsettling, but the most likely possibility." Zaylee frowned.

"Count your slugs now and be ready." Eli told his gang.

Everyone nodded. Zaylee gripped Styx's canister tightly, hopping he could spare them from enough of the henchmen even after using him once today.

"I hope you're up for it." She whispered down to her secret weapon.

Stryx looked up at her and nodded, but she could tell he was tired. The Vampenkyeko didn't get shot often, so he wasn't the strongest or best practiced in her arsenal, which made times like these especially worrying.

"Our mechas are close." Pronto informed them. "And I am afraid to say, but I believe Kord was right. I have a feeling of nearing doom."

Zaylee felt the nervous feeling settle in her gut again, and she moved closer to Eli.

"It'll be okay." He looked over at her and tried to reassure her with a smile.

"I'm just glad you're doing okay." She tried to smile back.

"Behind this door!" Pronto announced.

"Then let's do this!" Eli nodded. "Would you like to do the honors?" He looked to Zaylee.

"The pleasure's all mine." She said sarcastically as she loaded Spike into her blaster and blasted the door to smithereens.

An onslaught of slugs streamed through the now open door. The gang jumped out of the way as quickly as possible as B.E.E's mutated slugs continued to pour through the doorway.

"They have to run out of slugs eventually, right?" Eli tried to chuckled.

"Don't kid yourself." Trixie frowned. "There were hundreds of those guys!"

Zaylee tried once again to reach out with her Shadow Clan senses, but there was still nothing.

"We can't even get through the doorway!" Kord griped.

"We'll just have to wait for them to come to us or run out of slugs then." Zaylee shrugged, leaning against Eli to try and relieve some of the throbbing pain in her side.

"It's looking like it's slowing down!" Pronto pointed at the doorway a few minutes later.

Zaylee nodded, set her jaw again, and loaded Styx into her blaster.

"I've got your back." Eli put a hand on her shoulder.

"Good, I'm going to need it." She nodded as she moved into the doorway. She began weaving her way in and out of the onslaught of slugs just like Belatra and Razbo had taught her, but it seemed like every slug was aimed on her. Eli shot away as many as he could, but they just kept coming.

She clambered on top of a discarded crate, and tried to aim Styx at as much of the large army of henchmen as possible. She pulled the trigger, relaxing slightly as Styx managed to take out almost two thirds of the large army.

"Good job boy." She said into the air as she took to attacking the rest of the army with Eli in their signature style. With him, it felt as if her abilities were still there, and she could take out more henchmen with ease. And with Pronto, Kord, and Trixie the rest of the henchmen were down and out for the count in no time at all.

Zaylee still fell to her knees panting as the last henchman fell.

"Come on, let's get these coordinates in and get out of here." Eli put an arm on her shoulder. Zaylee nodded and followed the Gang to their mechas.

Xia looked at Zaylee with concern later that night on her computer screen.

"You said you couldn't use your Shadow Clan skills at all?"

Zaylee shook her head. "But as soon as we got out of the compound, everything went back to normal."

"Strange. At least we know where one of their locations is now."

"Yeah, but I told you how many henchmen we had to fight off. If there are more than that, and more enhanced slugs than we fought today, we don't stand a chance."

"Even with the megamorphs you think?"

Zaylee nodded her head as she took a sip of sparkling grape juice. "We're going to have to find their source, and take them out from there if we want to have any hope of success."

"I can't imagine that's lightly guarded though."

Zaylee nodded with a deep sigh. "Just keep intercepting those transmissions and articles and we'll see what else we can do." She rubbed her temple before signing off and slumping down onto her couch completely exhausted. Things could only get worse from here.


	5. Episode 16: Dying For A Victory

**So I promised consistent updating and failed, but here have the next one!**

Zaylee was still chewing on a piece of bacon when her phone went off. She grabbed another slice before getting up to answer the call.

"What's up?" Zaylee asked, her mouth muffled by her breakfast.

"It's Erimda." Xia looked worried. "She's on the move again. Dana overheard at a bar that she's planning to take over the Shadow Clan territory near Bulls Eye."

"Then let's gear up."

Xia shook her head. "I can't, I have to keep an eye on my computer. I'm working on decoding new stuff from B.E.E."

Zaylee frowned. "Pulse? Dana?"

"Dana hasn't been heard from since she sent me that information and Pulse has been in hiding. Twist found out she's technically one of Blakk's heirs."

Zaylee frowned even deeper. "I can't do this one alone, we both know that."

"So call the Shane Gang." Xia looked at her friend like it was the most obvious answer in the world, but Zaylee's face palled at the name.

"Zaylee, it's your only option."

"I don't know… I don't like asking for help from them."

"You've helped them hundreds of time. What's the issue?"

Zaylee shrugged. "I don't know; it makes me feel incompetent. Like, I'm supposed to be older, wiser, their mentor, I don't know how to describe it. I'm not really sure what my role is with them. And then there's Mfalme who told me something about helping Eli "achieve his destiny" which makes everything even more confusing…" Zaylee groaned in frustration and tugged on her hair.

"Then consider this helping Eli achieve his destiny. Now go, you don't have much time."

Zaylee sighed, swallowing the last of her bacon. Xia had already signed off, leaving no further room for debate. She dialed the Shane Gang as she went to wash her hands.

"Zaylee?" Eli asked looking around until the teenager walked back into the screen.

"The Shadow Clan territory en route to Bulls Eye. Meet me there as soon as possible. Erimda's back." Zaylee kept her explanation as short as possible as she began to gather her gear and signal her slugs.

"If it's Erimda I'm not letting you go. It's too dangerous." Eli glared, starting getting ready as well.

"I'm going. Mfalme and the Shadow Clan mean more to me than you can understand." Zaylee stated defiantly. "I'll meet you there." She said turning off the wall projector as she headed out the door, doing as Xia had to her just a few moments earlier.

Eli glared at his friend as they stood at the outskirts of the Shadow Clan's territory.

"Last time you faced Erimda you almost died! I'm not letting you do this!"

"I've been facing Erimda for months! I'll be fine! I know this villain better than you ever will. I am going to protect my friends."

"We can protect the Shadow Clan just fine! Your safety is more important!"

"We face life-threatening challenges almost every day! What's the big deal?"

"Guys, there's a group headed this way." Trixie spoke up between them, holding up her holo-pad.

"It's them." Zaylee nodded glancing at the blue screen. "I'd know that formation anywhere."

Eli glared at his older friend, but let the argument drop, realizing it was too late.

_My child, is everything alright? _Mfalme's voice cut through her head as she loaded her blaster with her Rammstone.

_Erimda is coming. You need to be careful._

_As do you._

_I know. _Zaylee set her face grimly and prepared herself for the worst.

A formation of five riders came around the bend, mounted on rhino-like mechas all wearing black and purple pinstripe suites.

Zaylee's Rammstone took out two of them and Eli's Arachnet captured the other three with ease.

"That can't be all of it." Zaylee muttered, feeling her stomach begin to sink. "Trixie, are there any more coming this way?"

Before the red-head could respond, an inhuman screech was heard from the heart of the territory.

"It was a distraction!" Eli growled in anger.

Zaylee had already turned her mecha around, bolting into the territory. She shot at as many henchmen she could see, shooting at rocks and crevices to reveal more of them.

She easily dispatched twenty henchmen before her mecha skidded to a stop near one of her old teachers Razbo and another clan member.

_Are you alright? _She asked them worriedly.

_We are alive if that is what you wish to know. The henchmen have some sort of grenade that temporarily renders our abilities useless if we are in range._

Zaylee palled, remembering how she couldn't use her own Shadow Clan abilities when she was trapped in B.E.E's hideout.

_Have they used any other chemicals?_

_Not yet. _Razbo grunted. _But I would not put it past them._

_You need to get out of here._

_We have to protect our lands. _The other Shadow Clan creature spoke up.

_The Shane Gang and I will do that. You need to get out of here. _Zaylee pressed, shooting a Flaringo out of the air as she did so.

Suddenly one of the henchmen shot a Phosphaller into the air, causing another unearthly wail to arise from all the Shadow Clan members. Zaylee winced at the sound.

She shot her Vampenkyeko at the offending slug, quickly draining its energy and returning the slug back to protoform.

_You need to get to safer territory._

_The Shadow Clan are a prideful race. _Bellatrix appeared by her brother. _They will not be easily persuaded to leave their lands._

_You told me yourself that pride was the ultimate downfall in a fighter! _Zaylee argued back at her teacher, shooting another weak henchman. Razbo did the same, knocking out two behind the human girl.

_We also taught you to stand your ground and stand for what you believe in. _Belatra almost hissed at her young pupil.

Zaylee sighed in defeat as she shot at another henchman. They were just as stubborn as her. But of course, she wasn't being stubborn at all.

"They're everywhere!" Kord's voice cut in over her communicator.

"Where's Mfalme? He can get everyone out of here!" Eli yelled.

"Doubtful," Zaylee sighed. "They want to fight. We just have to protect them."

"You are part of them today. Try and get them to leave. It's too dangerous for you." Eli argued.

"If I'm part of them, I fight with them." Zaylee decided. She nodded to her teachers and dismounted her mecha.

_Let's give 'em hell. _She smiled at the three Shadow Clan members next to her.

They all roared in response even if they did not understand the reference she made. They transported in a blip and a cloud of black smoke, moving to a high precipice where they could see most of the dark territory.

"Be careful." Eli's concerned voice buzzed in her ear.

She ignored the message and began shooting everything she had at the offending henchmen.

A new black rhino mecha stomped into the center of the territory, the henchman shooting Phosphallers left and right and throwing out round silver metal balls which Zaylee assumed were the grenades Razbo had been talking about earlier. Attached was an overly-ornate cart where Zaylee could see just the slightest bit of bottle blonde bob sticking out of the window.

_Stay away from her. _Zaylee tried to reach her mind out to as many of the Shadow Clan members as she could.

Zaylee looked down to see Mfalme and a handful of other Clans members incapacitated by one of the grenades and about to fall prey to a rookie henchman. Angrily Zaylee transported down there and dispatched the henchman with a clean shot to the chest from Rexy.

_Are you alright? _Zaylee asked, bending down to the Shadow Clan leader.

_Thank you young one, I will be. _

"Aw, how cute." Erimda's nasally voice cackled from above them. She was twirling her jeweled cane in one hand and in the other she was toying with a grenade.

Before Zaylee even had time to load her blaster again, Erimda lifted her cane. The bottom lifted to reveal a loaded slug and she shot Zaylee and Mfalme with a green-colored Arachnet. Zaylee grabbed Mfalme's long arm and tried to transport out, but found she could not.

"You look a little worried." Erimda was now inches away from their faces, sneering evilly. Zaylee grimaced. Her wrinkles looked even uglier in high-def.

"Oh, but there's a perfectly good explanation that I'm sure you're just _dying _to hear."

Mfalme let out an angry hiss which Erimda just laughed at as the green Arachnet returned.

"As I'm sure you've figured out child, for all their genius, B.E.E has terrible coding. Hacking is a breeze." She let out a little laugh as she put the mutated Arachnet back on her belt. "And it also seems they have files upon files about chemicals concerning the Shadow Clan. For whatever reason though, they haven't put any of them to the test. So I decided to take the _initiative, _if you will, and see how they work for myself."

She languidly walked around the trapped pair, holding a black grenade she had for them to see. "And if you also haven't noticed, this grenade here is a bit different from the rest. The rest of the grenades, along with the Arachnet's web," She leaned in, plucking the restrictive material for extra effect, "will only incapacitate you. This," She shook the ball in their faces, turning it on, "will kill you."

She laughed as she let the metal ball roll to the captured pair's feet and walked back to her carriage.

Zaylee and Mfalme began struggling violently but could not break free of their bonds.

"Eli!" Zaylee yelled over the communicator.

"Little busy at the moment." He called back, the sound of transforming slugs in the background.

"Well un-busy yourself!" She yelled. Mfalme hissed in agreement, unable to communicate with Zaylee anymore due to the mutated Arachnet's green web.

Zaylee looked down as the grenade started making a high-pitched whistle. A purple gas began to spill out of it and she contemplated just how long she could hold her breath for. She could barely see Kord and Pronto chasing after Erimda out of the corner or her eye as she began to get tunnel vision. Her lungs were burning and she knew she was going to die one way or another unless she could somehow reach the antidote inside her boot that Xia had given her after her last near-death experience. The Arachnet's web was restricting her from doing anything though.

She could already feel Mfalme sagging beside her. She gripped his hand tightly in fear, like a scared child would with a parent, as her body forced her to take a breath. Next her entire body felt like it was being burned from the inside out. It started in her lungs and spread to the tips of her fingers and toes like wild fire. Her heart felt like it was about to burst. She looked down and saw her veins bulging out of her skin and turning blue. Whatever this was it was much faster and more effective than the last thing that Erimda had tried to kill her with. The purple smoke was dissipating now and she could see the remnants of the fight around her. Every color was saturated and the world seemed to be moving in slow-motion. Each breath she took burned more than the last and every nerve in her body felt like it had been set ablaze.

She continued to struggle against her bonds, refusing to give up without a fight, but it was no use. She felt a single hot tear roll down her cheek as she accepted her end.

Suddenly she felt the sticky web being pulled off her and she collapsed to the ground, curling up in pain.

"Zaylee! Zaylee!" Eli's face was blurry in front of her, and he sounded like he was trying to yell at her from underwater.

"Boot…" She managed to get out, before curling deeper into herself to try and avoid the pain. Razbo's long fingers were quickly at her pulse point, somehow slowing her heart rate down in a desperate attempt to keep the poison from spreading any faster.

Eli eventually managed to find a black steel box within the rest of the junk in Zaylee's boots and frantically ripped off the top. In the black lining were two large syringes with a blue liquid inside each of them. A Shadow Clan member quickly took one and stabbed it into their king's neck.

Eli mirrored the image, removing Razbo's fingers and plunging the needle into Zaylee's jugular vein.

Zaylee looked blearily at Eli as the burning sensation eventually began to fade.

"You should have un-busied yourself sooner." She managed to joke weakly as she tried to wipe the sweat off her face only to discover her hand was covered in equally as much sweat.

"What were you thinking!" Eli whispered exasperatedly as he pulled her into a tight hug. "I shouldn't have let you do this." He murmured into her neck.

Zaylee didn't even try to fight back and just let Eli hold her tightly until a set of long fingers brushed across her shoulder.

_We owe all of you much this day. _Mfalme was standing, but he still looked extremely weak.

Zaylee nodded and placed her hand over his. _I'm glad you're okay._

_The same goes for you my child. _Mfalme gave a small smile to his favorite human as the rest of the Shadow Clan converged around them. He then pointed to Eli's backpack, signaling that he was to join the conversation.

Without completely letting go of Zaylee he put the Shadow Talker on his head and waited expectantly for what the Shadow Clan leader had to say.

_That is only the beginning of these attacks, and most certainly not all of what Erimda is capable of. She will come back with more weapons, more enhanced slugs, and eventually, better henchmen. You both need to be prepared for whatever she throws at you._

"The same could go for you! You need to stay out of her way. She almost killed you today!" Eli snapped. Zaylee sent a weak elbow into his ribcage to try and silence him.

Mfalme leaned down and hissed at the young Shane. _A Shadow Creature will not easily abandon his home because some witch thinks she is entitled to this land. _He righted his posture and spoke to the entire clan. _We will prepare and be ready for her next attack. Young Shane, and our Zaylee as well- we only hope you will come to our aid when we need you. _

_We will always be willing to help you. _Zaylee nodded.

_Be careful my child._

_As for you as well. _Zaylee nodded to her king before the Shadow Clan began to disperse leaving the Shane Gang alone.

"Come on Zayls, let's get you home." Eli smiled gently, wiping her damp bangs out of her face.

Zaylee nodded and slowly followed Eli back to their mechas.

Dana had finally re-appeared and was sitting next to Xia as she continued to work on decoding more of B.E.E's files. An uncomfortable silence had settled on the hideout after Trixie had debriefed the two girls as to what had happened.

"She's more of a threat than we originally intended." Eli finally spoke from his spot on his couch, "Whatever she wants with the Shadow Clan's lands, we have to make sure she doesn't get them. And since clearly the Shadow Clan refuses to take refuge from her-" He paused to glare down at Zaylee who was leaning on his shoulder. She glared weakly back up at him before motioning to her water on the coffee table. Eli got it for her, but still looked angrily at his reckless friend as he continued. "-We need to stop her sooner than later. She has the ability to incapacitate and kill the Shadow Clan." He continued. "She should be our top priority."

"Wrong." Xia argued, never looking up from her computer. "B.E.E should be our first priority. She got the information from B.E.E and we know more about her than we do about B.E.E. Stopping her occasionally isn't a big deal, stopping her and others from getting their hands on B.E.E's poorly coded information is more important. As well as stopping B.E.E from doing whatever they are planning."

"We should stop Erimda first! B.E.E's just a cloudy mystery! We know what Erimda's planning and we know more about her!" Eli snapped back at the calm elf.

"And let B.E.E pull a huge destructive stunt while we're distracted? Bad idea Shane." Dana spoke up. "But I do agree that Zaylee needs to be more careful on these missions. As long as Erimda can still find and decode B.E.E information, she's more of a threat to you than any of us. Even with her crap henchmen."

Zaylee stuck a tongue out at her friend, too exhausted to argue. Nearly dying had taken its toll on the teenager. She handed her drink back to Eli before yawning and drifting off to sleep amid her friend's debate. She could argue with them in the morning.


	6. Episode 17: Playdates and Paydays

**I'm pretty sure I'm never going to be able to follow through on my promise of consistency, but here, have another chapter. Don't forget to review please! **

"Who knew relaxing could be so… relaxing?" Kord joked.

The rest of the Shane Gang laughed, the noise muted by the bubbling hot spring they were soaking in. Eli waved to Zaylee and Xia as they came back laden with fancy drinks with little umbrellas sticking out of them. He bit his lip and swallowed, his throat suddenly dry. Zaylee had been making today extremely difficult for him. His best friend was rocking her blue and green polka dot bikini. She handed Eli a pale yellow drink with a pineapple wedge and slid into the water beside him. Eli resisted the urge to pull her close to him as he began sipping on his tangy drink and tried to pay attention to the conversation and actually relax.

A couple caverns across though, things were anything but relaxing.

"We're not doing it!" A teen with dirty blonde hair slammed his fist down making everyone in the grey room jump slightly.

"And why not?" A young scientist with curly red hair glared back at him.

"Because why should we?"

"Because you know he would want us to!" The scientist yelled back.

"How is he going to make us?" A girl with amber eyes and brown hair shrugged. Her heavy boots rested on the ledge of the table and she looked more interested in the blueprints on her holo-pad than she was in the meeting.

"Twist- please." Another girl, slightly older with dark hair and of unimaginable beauty looked up at him.

Twist's face crumbled for a moment, looking at his friend Nicole's broken face, but he recomposed himself. He had been handed leadership of Blakk Industries after Blakk had been sucked into the realm of the Dark Bain, and he had to admit, he was kinda enjoying the power.

"Blakk's been there before." Maurice spoke up. "He managed to get himself out the last time he ended up down there. You'd be better off if you brought him back first. You might even be rewarded."

"And we might not be." Twist growled. "Besides, how do you know he'll make it back this time?"

"I've known him for years. He'll make it back."

Twist caved and slammed his table again in frustration. Why did Maurice have to be right? "Fine. Quentin, go set it up."

The red-haired scientist smiled and hurried off in the direction of the lab. Maurice and Nicole left as shortly after.

Kaiya looked up from her lap-pad at Twist who was still standing with his fist on the table and an angry look on his face.

"I know, I know. Don't look at me like that okay! But they're right. If he finds his way out on his own, we're screwed."

"We're going to regret this." She said flatly.

"There's not an option we won't regret. We just gotta fight it out for now."

Kaiya gave Twist a displeased sneer before whistling for her dog Jett and heading out of the office leaving Twist alone to contemplate the decision he had made.

Eli felt extremely tense. He looked up at the shabby club where a few months ago his last relationship took a nosedive. That one was doomed anyways- but he hoped the girl who was laughing with her friends next to him wouldn't do the same thing to him. Not that he really had a reason to stop her from doing so. He glanced over at her for the thousandth time that hour. She was wearing a dress for once- and a real bra. The dark blue fabric clung tightly to her torso before flaring out in a short skirt. Her curves were more accented than ever. She looked like a goddess. Her three friends were all decked out too, but no matter how hard he tried, every time he looked at them his eyes were glued to Zaylee.

"We going in or what?" Trixie piped up. Eli stiffened again.

"Totes!" Pulse yelled, rushing ahead of the rest of the group with Pronto scurrying after her. Zaylee chuckled at her friend before nodding to Eli and strutting towards the door. Eli hesitated for a moment before he felt Kord shove him in the right direction and he stumbled after his goddess and the rest of the group.

He was so nervous he couldn't bring himself to go to the dance floor and found himself gravitating to the bar. He looked around for Mario, hoping for some more man advice, but saw the ex-star trying to chat it up with Xia. He rolled his eyes. So that was the girl he was talking about.

"Hey bud, what are you doing over here?" Zaylee suddenly popped up next to him.

Eli sputtered a bit. Zaylee held her fingers up for two drinks.

"You're not going to have any fun sitting here." She smiled, handing him a strange golden colored drink in a fancy shot glass.

"Am I allowed to drink this stuff?" He looked at it strangely.

"Do you trust me?" Zaylee smiled.

Eli nodded.

"Then drink it. Hold your breath and swallow quickly." She advised him before downing her own.

Eli did as he was directed and immediately regretted it. He coughed a few times, his friend just laughed at him.

"Come on, let's go dance." She smiled as soon as he managed to right himself.

"I don't know… my last experience here wasn't the greatest…"

Zaylee's face darkened for a moment. She ordered another pair of drinks.

"Let's help you forget that then and make some better memories." She was smiling again as she handed Eli a shot of clear liquid.

It was worse than the last one but he managed to keep from coughing this time. Two more and things were starting to feel fuzzy when Zaylee grabbed his hand and dragged him out onto the dance floor.

She didn't dance with anyone but him.

She was right.

These were better memories.

Kaiya was sitting on the floor, her holo pad propped up by one leg as she unwrapped her lunch. Nicole was pacing furiously outside of Quentin's lab.

"Dude, why do you care so much?" Kaiya asked, her question muffled with a huge bite of sandwich.

"You know why." She glared at Kaiya.

"Guess I just don't understand it." She shrugged at her friend. She offered the other half of her sandwich to the troubled girl.

Nicole shoved it away. "Wouldn't expect you to."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kaiya stood up from her spot against the wall, suddenly defensive.

"I'm just saying that you don't share that type of a connection with a partner or significant other." Nicole shrugged, completely unperturbed.

Kaiya sat back down, unable to argue back. She was just glad Twist wasn't there to hear that comment.

"I've done it!" Quentin burst out of the lab, startling the two girls.

"Finally!" Nicole exclaimed, rushing inside.

"Hey! I worked for five days straight on this thing! The least you could do is say thanks!"

"Don't expect much. She's the most thankful of all of us." Kaiya grunted. "I'll go get Twist and Maurice."

Zaylee smirked over the sight of her blaster. She was not in the least bit worried about what evils might be lurking in the world of Slugterra at the moment but was rather feeling a high level of confidence at her fingertips.

"You sure you want to do this again 'Lister?" She challenged.

"Won't get any better if I don't try." He shrugged nonchalantly.

"Well that's not much of a winning attitude." She bantered back.

"Then how about this: Bring. It. On."

"With pleasure." She smiled, pulling the trigger. Her Rammstone shot out of the barrel with megamorph speed. Eli quickly retaliated with his megamorph Tazerling. She raised her arm to shield herself from the burst of electricity as she chose her next slug. However, she already heard Eli firing again, and she had to do a barrel roll to avoid a high-speed Vinedrill.

"Close, but no cigar." She taunted as she shot her Lavalynx at Eli. He countered with his Frostcrawler. She jumped to a new position behind a mushroom and shot her Acus at him. Eli countered with his own Acus and Zaylee cringed at the sound of scraping metal. She chose her Arachnet next, but Eli captured it with his Bubbaleone.

"Damn, he is getting good." Zaylee muttered to herself. She saw Burpy bouncing up and down on Eli's shoulder ready to get in the blaster. She knew that at megamorph speed she'd never be able to best that slug. Thinking quickly she loaded her Hop Rock, aiming for Eli's shoulder- a place he hopefully wasn't expecting. Not even paying attention to see if she had hit her target, she loaded her Vinedrill and shot the green slug at her friend.

She looked up in time to see her plan fall into place perfectly as expected. The Hop Rock didn't have enough force to send Eli flying, but it was enough to knock him off is feet and knock his Infurnus off his shoulder. Then Ivy trapped Eli in a mass of vines and snatched his blaster out of his reach.

"You're getting better." Zaylee smiled as the vines began to recede. "But remember, so have I."

Eli rolled his eyes at his friend. "Best two out of three?"

"You're on."

Twist didn't understand why he was so nervous about this. Perhaps he was scared of being yelled at by Blakk again. He was just enjoying things as they were right now, he and Kaiya were getting along great and he had so much power just sitting at his fingertips. Why would he want to give that up?

"Let's fire it up." Nicole said at the computer behind him.

"Alright, now how this works, is I should have pinpointed Blakk's location using DNA samples from his room. It's not as creepy as it sounds, I swear. I've already been able to narrow down the location, which should take out some of the guesswork. The dark water we've managed to save after the _incident _will power the machine creating a portal that…"

Twist tuned out Quentin's ramblings and turned his attention to Kaiya. Her back was turned to him so he had the opportunity to stare at her without being yelled at. And she did have quite the behind…

"Let's rev it up!" Quentin yelled. "Protective eyewear on!"

Twist rolled his eyes, but complied, putting the dorky red-tinted goggles on.

The machine whirred into action, producing a powerful red glow and an unearthly noise and then… nothing.

"What? That's impossible!" Quentin screamed.

Twist felt a surge of relief. No Blakk meant he could maintain control over the corporation. And he thought he was doing quite a good job at it.

"Let me see those calculations." Kaiya grumbled. She shoved Quentin out of the way, fiddling with various nobs and typing various equations into the computer.

"You're an idiot." She sighed annoyed at the extremely offended scientist. "You had the warp factor off by five. And you forgot to carry the two." She handed him his stack of calculations as she turned one last knob before starting the machine up again. It whirred and glowed before creating a high-pitched hum that turned into a scream as the cylinder in the middle of the room glowed bright red.

Twist brought his hand up to shield his eyes in spite of the goggles. The glow in the cylinder turned bright white before the machine shut off. Twist blinked a few times before his eyes adjusted. To his slight dismay Blakk stepped out of the tall cylinder, a copious amount of smoke billowing out behind him. Why did his favorite person in the citadel have to be a mechanical genius? He'd have to grill Kaiya as to why she did anything in the first place.

"Took you long enough." Blakk sneered at his followers.

"All the thanks I get!" Quentin yelled again, throwing his hands up in annoyance.

Twist looked at Blakk harder now that his eyes had readjusted and he could take off the dumb goggles. He looked more gaunt and pale than he was before. If that was even possible. He still looked just as evil and determined though.

"Come, we have work to do." He commanded. And Twist, like an obedient dog followed the man to his office.


	7. Episode 18: Blakk is Back

**Hi so here is where it kinda gets dark and dramatic, so if you're in it for fun and fluff, the rest of this story is not for you. For the rest of you, I hope you like it!**

"Eli, we've got a major problem."

The young Shane craned his neck to look at his red-headed friend was furiously typing away at the computer.

"It's Blakk Industries." She continued lowly. "Their activity has gone from nothing to almost everywhere overnight."

"Impossible!" Pronto huffed.

"Call Zaylee." Eli told Trixie before looking to his other friends. "Gear up. We're going to find out what this is and put a stop to this before anything else can happen."

Zaylee rode quickly through the caverns with her best friends behind her and 30 of Blakk's lackeys on their tail.

"Where did they come from?" Dana asked again as she dodged a megamorph Thresher aimed at her head.

"Don't know, wish I did." Xia griped. She looked to Pulse who just shrugged and shook her head.

"Doesn't matter!" Zaylee yelled over the rushing wind. "We just need to get rid of them!"

Suddenly her communicator was beeping. Another distress call probably. She turned it on as she continued trying to blast the aggressive henchmen away from her and her friends.

"Zaylee Foxx speaking, if you are being attacked or terrorized by Blakk, please send your coordinates in and we will be there as soon as possible."

"Zaylee, it's me, Trixie."

"What do you need?" The older girl asked as she narrowly dodged an incoming Thrasher.

"Blakk Industries is making a comeback."

"Very aware." Zaylee moved out of the way of the screen on her mecha so Trixie could see the barrage of henchmen that were still attacking her and her friends.

"Oh… do you think you could meet us? We could really use all the help we can get."

"It's best to divide and conquer." Xia spoke up.

"Agreed." Zaylee nodded. "But give us like fifteen minutes and we'll meet you in Corkscrew."

Trixie nodded before signing off. Zaylee slammed the breaks on her mecha and spun it around to face the rest of the nasty henchmen.

"Alright girls, let's give 'em hell!"

Her friends grinned deviously in agreement, loading their blasters and firing at their assailants.

Eli watched the four girls skid to a halt in front of him ten minutes later, out of breath, and looking rather frazzled.

"Okay, so we've got five distress calls in five different caverns…" Zaylee began.

"Six," Xia corrected as her communicator lit up again.

"We've got a couple too." Trixie looked at the older girls.

"There's not enough of us to go around." Eli grumbled frustratedly.

"If only we could get them in one place, they'd be so much easier to take care of." Kord griped.

"You sure you want to take on that many people at once?" Dana looked at the Shane Gang skeptically.

"If it was all eight of us it'd be a breeze." Eli nodded, agreeing with Kord.

"I know a way." Pulse spoke up quietly.

Zaylee looked at her half-feline friend. "You really want to do that?"

"I don't think she should." Xia said.

"Do what?" Eli asked expectantly.

"I have an old communicator from Blakk Industries. I deactivated it years ago, but if I turn it on, they'll know it's me, and I can almost promise they'll all come for me."

"Well what are we waiting for?" Pronto looked at his girlfriend.

"I don't like this idea." Dana looked warily at the black and red communicator in Pulse's hand.

"Me neither," Zaylee sighed, "But I don't think we have a choice. There's no way we can deal with all of these distress calls, and more are just going to keep coming."

Just as Zaylee finished, Eli's communicator on his mecha lit up, confirming Zaylee's statement.

"Do it." Eli looked at Pulse with a mixture of command and pleading in his face.

Pulse sighed, looking down at the communicator apprehensively. She fiddled for something in her pocket, pulling out a battery and sticking it into the device. She flipped a switch and watched it spring to life, emanating an eerie red glow.

"Come and get me." She said quietly, trying to mask her fear with determination.

"Come get all of us." Eli spoke up loud enough to be heard through the device.

Erin shoved the communicator in her pocket, a look of distance taking over her features.

"Let's move to somewhere more open." Zaylee suggested, nodding at the surrounding buildings. "We need to get to some high ground before they find us."

Eli nodded in agreement and the 8 teens headed out of the cavern.

Zaylee pushed her goggles back up her head.

"They're coming."

Eli stood beside her, nodding grimly as he looked down from the hill they had parked their mechas on. Their friends and teammates fanned out beside them, making a smart V-formation.

"Any specific plan?" Trixie asked.

"Yeah, don't die." Zaylee reached for her blaster, grabbing it tightly. She hadn't told her friends the number of henchmen that were barreling at them, and she had also left out who was leading the group. If they made it out alive, they'd be lucky.

"Is that Twist?" Eli exclaimed.

"And Nacho." Pulse grumbled.

"He shouldn't be in Slugterra!" Trixie gasped.

"Well, he is." Dana turned a judgmental eyebrow at the red-head. "So let's show him what we're made of."

Zaylee nodded in agreement. She whipped her blaster out of its holster, loading it with such speed that she almost cracked the cylinder in which her slug was nestled, ready for battle. She didn't hesitate to send the long-range Thresher at the battalion of henchmen. Her friends and the Shane gang followed with a volley of various slugs, all strong and powerful and ready to attack.

But they weren't strong enough. The teens frowned as all eight slugs were shot out of the air by angry megamorph ghouls and another round of ghouls came flying at them. Zaylee cursed, taking cover behind her mecha as the slugs exploded around her.

"What the heck?" Kord yelled frustrated, "I thought this was going to be easy!"

"Never said that." Xia looked at him hard. "We only agreed this was our best option."

"Come on guys," Eli tried to rally his gang, "We've done tons of difficult things, we can beat them here."

Zaylee disagreed with her best friend, but held her tongue, deciding to focus on the fight in front of her. She was again, kept from using her Shadow Clan abilities, and Blakk's army was closing in fast.

"We're out-numbered, and out-slugged, we need to get out of here." Pulse looked at Zaylee.

"Not yet, I think I have an idea." Zaylee winked, pulling out her Vampenkyeko.

She popped up from behind her mecha, shooting Styx across the cavern. A little hope shined in her eyes until Nacho shot the poor slug out of the air.

"Aw come on!" She yelled.

"Retreat?" Pulse asked again.

"If we don't stop them, they're going to go back to terrorizing everyone!" Eli yelled. "We don't have another choice!"

"I hate to admit it, but little legacy boy over here is right." Dana huffed, trying to get a shot in at one of the henchmen.

Eli rolled his eyes at the nickname as he jumped to the side to avoid an angry Hop Jack.

"We need to take the offensive." He looked to Zaylee.

"I'd rather not die!" She yelled back, screaming in frustration when another one of her slugs was shot out of the air.

"Well how are we going to win! I thought you were all about taking the offensive."

"Pulse is right." Zaylee sighed in defeat. "We're in over our heads. We need to retreat."

"We have to protect the people of Slugterra!" Eli argued.

"You can't do that if you're dead!" Xia reminded him, her megamorph Armashelt clashing with a ghouled megamorph Atacknet.

"Well, I've still got one trick up my sleeve." Eli grunted, jumping from behind his mecha and sliding down the hill.

"Eli!" His friends cried in unison.

Eli grabbed the fusion shot attachment out of his backpack. He looked down to his two strongest slugs, Joules and Burpy.

"You guys ready?" He looked down at them confidently.

The slugs nodded and hopped into the blaster.

Zaylee watched in awe as Eli preformed the fusion move perfectly. Nacho and Twist jumped out of the way but some of the other henchmen were not so lucky.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Xia asked, starting to shoot at Nacho and Twist again as the two powerful slingers began to converge on Eli.

"I'm going down to help him. You guys stay here, and if things look bad, run for it. I have a way to get us out of here if all else fails." Zaylee looked at her friends before sliding down the hill and quickly running over to where Eli was.

"You're crazy." She reprimanded him as she began to shoot at Twist, her Shadow Clan abilities helping her to know where Loki's illusions were and where the actual teenager was.

Eli rolled his eyes and dodged another Megamorph ghoul.

"Eh, what do you have here Eli, a girlfriend?" Twist sneered.

"No." They both said too quickly.

Both the blonde and Nacho were closing in on them fast. Even their signature fighting style and the help Eli and Zaylee were receiving from above couldn't stop Blakk's left and right hand men from getting even closer.

Zaylee knocked a megamorph Harmashelt out of the air with Spike and Eli dodged an Amperling.

Twist yelled in frustration as Zaylee continued to shoot at him and not the multiple apparitions of himself that were surrounding the pair.

"How-!" He yelled in frustration.

"I have my secrets, and you have yours." She winked, but frowned as Twist still outmaneuvered her crafty shots.

"Zaylee, we're getting low on ammo up here." Pulse's voice buzzed in her ear.

"We have to give them all we've got." Zaylee argued, somersaulting out of the way of an angry Frostfang.

"I don't get it." Eli looked worriedly at Zaylee. "Together we're usually unstoppable."

Zaylee shook her head as she tried to get another shot in at the sly teenager and the powerful Dark Bane in front of her. "If I knew what the issue was, I would have solved it by now."

They were low on both ideas and slugs, and their opponents were anything but, grinning at the pair with hungry revenge-filled eyes.

Suddenly Zaylee stiffened. She sensed an immense darkness making its way through the army of Henchmen. Twist's and Nacho's grins got even wider, and she knew exactly what that meant.

"Blakk…" Xia's gasp confirmed her assumption, followed by a series of "No, that can't be's", and "I swear I saw him sucked into the Dark Realm myself!" claims.

"If we don't run now," Zaylee whispered to Eli, "We are going to have our butts handed to us and then hauled off to Blakk Industries to suffer who-knows-what."

"We can't run now." Eli hissed back.

"We don't have a choice."

Eli opened his mouth to protest, but Zaylee just grabbed his arm, gave the two opponents a sheepish grin and ran back up the hill with Eli stumbling behind her.

"Let's get out of here!" She yelled, hopping on her mecha and throwing the silver machine into over-drive, not thinking whether or not her friends could keep up.

They all trailed behind her, trying to keep up with her speeds as Blakk and his henchmen went after them.

"We need to lose them!" Eli yelled.

"Any ideas?" Pulse looked to Pronto.

"Yes!"

"How about one that doesn't take us through the flumes?" Zaylee glanced behind her at the Molenoid.

He closed is mouth, pondering if there were any other options.

"Could you hurry up Pronto?" Trixie asked, worry seeping into her voice as hundreds of red dots quickly approached their group.

Zaylee looked up and eased off the throttle slightly as the teenagers approached a desert-type area, with towering red colored rocks and clouds of sand that the mecha beasts kicked up beneath them.

Pronto was still pondering until he suddenly decided a plan. "Go left!" He yelled.

Zaylee looked at the path he was suggesting and frowned. "You sure about this?"

"Have I ever led you astray before?"

"I can name a few times…" Zaylee grimaced.

"We don't have time to come up with another plan, let's go!" Dana yelled as the sound of transforming ghouls could now be heard behind them.

Zaylee held her grimace but followed Pronto's directions and steered her mecha left, through a very narrow crevice in the rocks. She slowed her speed to try and avoid hitting the sides of the cavern. Amicus would never let her hear the end of it if she scratched the paint job.

"Are they following us?" Pulse asked quietly.

"Doesn't look like it." Trixie looked down at the electronic map on her mecha.

There was a collective sigh of relief.

"Alright Pronto, get us home." Eli smiled.

"With pleasure!" The Molenoid declared.

The Shane Gang along with Zaylee walked into the Shane hideout quietly, still mulling over the day's events. Zaylee's friends had gone their separate ways, but Zaylee had opted to stay with the Shane Gang for a bit. They were all still slightly shell shocked to see Blakk standing in front of them again, and the question on everyone's minds was "How do we stop him?" Blakk Industries was more powerful than ever and the fight today proved that. It was going to take more than 8 teenagers to stop the mayhem that was upon Slugterra now.

"Hey, what's that?" Kord's question broke the silence. He was pointing to a letter that had been shoved under the front door.

Eli shrugged and went to pick it up. He let out a small gasp as he read the address on the front.

"Who's it from?" Trixie asked.

"My… mom." Eli's voice was full of surprise.

"I thought there wasn't communication between the surface world and Slugterra." Trixie murmured quietly.

"There usually isn't." Zaylee spoke darkly. "It costs a lot of money and it can take months for a letter to get here."

Eli had opened the letter and was quietly reading it as he walked out the back door.

"Should we go after him?" Trixie asked Zaylee.

"Give him his privacy for now, he needs it. We have bigger things to worry about right now."

Trixie nodded in understanding. She spread out a large hologram on the table and Zaylee sat down, trying to push the worries about why someone would need to send a letter from the surface to Eli.


	8. Episode 19: Homeward Bound to Chaos

Zaylee's brain felt like it was going to fall out of her ears as she continued to stare at the map of Slugterra before her. Her three friends had joined the Shane Gang and everyone was arguing over the hologram in front of them.

"I'm telling you, low-rock cavern is a terrible place to try and ambush them!" Kord argued.

"No! The terrain is perfect for guerilla style warfare!" Dana yelled back.

"Why does the style of warfare even matter?" Pronto asked. "Let's just face them head on!"

"We're out numbered." Xia looked at him coolly. "And unless you want to die, guerilla is our best option."

Zaylee buzzed her lips, trying to stay focused. She looked at the clock on the wall. They'd been at this for almost two hours.

"When's Eli coming back? He'll settle this." Pulse complained.

Zaylee frowned deeply. She wanted to give Eli his privacy, but two hours was a bit much.

"I'll go check on him." She got up, grateful for the excuse to leave the table.

She walked outside, looking around for the young Shane. However, he was nowhere in sight.

"Eli?" Zaylee called tentatively. She heard a squeak at her feet and looked down to see Snoop.

"Hey buddy. You always know when I need you." She smiled. Snoop smiled back at his owner and jerked his small head as an indication for Zaylee to follow him. She started off and followed the gold slug until he stopped with a triumphant noise in front of a large mushroom not too far off from the hideout.

"Eli?" She asked again. No response. She slowly made her way around the stalk of the mushroom until she saw him hunched over himself.

"What's wrong?" She asked quietly as she sat next to him, pulling him close to her side.

"It's my mom." He mumbled. "She's sick."

"How sick?" Zaylee asked tentatively.

"Cancer. It sounds real bad too." Eli's voice was barely above a whisper.

Zaylee hugged her friend tightly feeling her eyes prick as her heart shattered. She didn't know what to say so she just rocked him back and forth in her arms, humming a slow song that was popular when they were just young kids.

"I have to go back." He said after a few minutes.

"Wait, what?" Zaylee released him enough so she could see his face.

"I need to see my mom."

Zaylee bit her lip. She wanted to say what a bad idea this was, and couldn't he wait, there was some serious shit going on down here, Slugterra needed him.

"What are you going to tell your friends?"

"The truth."

"They aren't going to let you go." She tried, desperate for an excuse.

"I can't just sit down here while my mom could be possibly dying!"

"Eli. Do you know when this letter was sent?"

Eli produced the envelope, pointing at the postal stamp.

"That's four months ago Eli." Zaylee said slowly, not sure how to phrase her argument. "A lot can happen in that time frame. She could be better by now."

"Or she could be worse! Zaylee, I need to go!"

"Eli, please think about this." Zaylee was starting to crack. Seeing her best friend like this broke her heart, but she had grown up enough in the five years she had spent in Slugterra to know that stopping Blakk was even more important than family.

"I have to go." He broke away from Zaylee's embrace and ran back to the hideout. Zaylee hung her head and let out a frustrated yell before running in after him.

She was met with utter chaos when she walked in the door. Everyone was trying to reason with Eli to get him to stay and not go home as well as bombarding him with tactical questions. She watched him get more and more irritated as he threw a few items into a small duffel bag and run out.

Trixie looked at Zaylee with worried eyes. "Please stop him." She begged. "We won't be able to stop Blakk without him."

"I know." Zaylee frowned. "I'll try." She ran out to mount her own mecha, kicking the engine to life. She didn't want to race after him though. It wasn't like she didn't know where Eli was going, and she was hoping that giving Eli some more time to himself would help him reconsider.

When she got to the drop she already found him in surface clothes, staring at the celling of the cavern.

"Damnit!" He yelled to no one in particular. "Why'd I close off the drop!"

"Eli. Don't go." Zaylee's voice was quiet, but it still carried across the empty field.

"I have to!" He spun around, desperation in his eyes. "It's my mom! Are you trying to tell me you wouldn't do the same?"

"You know the type of relationship I have with my mom." Zaylee said darkly.

"But you have that sort of relationship with your dad. We both know it."

Zaylee frowned, not sure of what else she could say.

"Zays please, you're my best friend. You know how much my mom means to me. She's all I have left."

"She's not all you have left." Zaylee argued, frustrated. "You have so much down here!"

"She's the woman who raised me. My dad was barely around when he was alive. She took care of me every day for 15 years of my life. I can't just ignore this! She needs me!" He shook the letter at Zaylee. Her posture sagged a bit. Eli had every right to do this, but for so many selfish reasons, Zaylee didn't want him to go.

"Zays, please, help me get home." Eli's eyes were large and moist. Zaylee started to feel herself tear up again at the sight of her best friend and crush so desperate and broken. No matter what, she'd never be able to say no to Eli.

"Fine." She sighed, "Just if you can, come back as soon as possible."

"I'll try." Eli took off his belt and handed it to Zaylee. "Take care of my slugs. You'll get more use out of them than I will."

"I know." Zaylee said grimly. "But seriously, try and come back quickly."

"I'll do my best." Eli grabbed Zaylee into a tight hug. She could feel a silent sob escape him and she had to bite her lip to keep her own tears from spilling over.

"Be safe." He whispered.

"You too."

She stepped out of the hug and aimed Eli's Acus at the blocked off entrance to the surface. Eli readied his own blaster and loaded Burpy into a cartridge. He gave Zaylee one last sad smile before shooting the Infurnus and hopping on its back. Despite all of her trepidations, Zaylee still watched in awe as Eli gave an excited whoop as Burpy flew back to the surface world.

"Well, where is he?" Kord asked as soon as Zaylee walked back into the Shane hideout.

"I couldn't talk him out of it." Zaylee half-lied.

"What are we going to do now?" Xia asked quietly.

"We look to you." Trixie turned to Zaylee.

"Wait, what?" She stammered.

"Without Eli, we need someone to lead us." Kord stated. "You're best suited for the job."

"What? No I'm not! I'm a lone wolf. Not a leader. Trixie, you do it."

Trixie shook her head. "You know more about slinging than anyone here. We want you to lead us."

"Trixie's right. You're best for this." Dana looked at the oldest legacy in the room.

Zaylee shook her head, her lips pressed in a thin, nervous line. "You're all crazy."

"Our options are limited here." Pulse looked hard at her friend. "Someone needs to save Slugterra."

"I'm not a leader." Zaylee repeated.

"Neither are any of us." Dana shrugged. "But you're the best here, the most experienced. You know things none of us will ever understand." She paused to nod to Zaylee's tattoo. "We all agree that it should be you, so be the Foxx you claim to be and step up and do it."

"Alright." Zaylee nodded, wiping the sweat off her palms onto her leggings. "If this is what you think is best-"

"We know this is what's best, and you have to believe it too."

"Fine." Zaylee swallowed, struggling to get over the nervous churning of her stomach. "But it's going to take more than the seven of us to save Slugterra. It's time to make some phone calls."

Zaylee paced up and down the hall as the phone rang. The din of her friends calling other slingers echoed in the tall celling of the Shane hideout. She couldn't remember any other day in her life being this chaotic.

"Yeah I know this is your work phone Mario… We need you to come out of retirement!... I get that! But we can't beat Blakk without your help!... what if I told you I'd put you on Xia's team?... Thought so. Perfect… meet here in two hours." Then it was on to the next call, and the next call and they all went sort of similarly. Bargaining everyone they knew that could hold a blaster to join them. It was going to take an army to stop Blakk and that's exactly what Zaylee intended to create.

The phone calls continued even as slingers began to filter into the hideout. Zaylee looked at the chaotic scene before her as she stood by herself on the balcony. Xia looked up at her and gave her a reassuring smile. Zaylee kept her features stony, afraid she might accidentally show her uncertainties.

The hideout was packed to the brim, the din turning into a quiet roar as the time Zaylee had designated arrived. She took out her blaster and loaded a Phosphaller. The noise and bright lights made everyone jump a bit before they all looked at Zaylee. Suddenly with all eyes on her she felt very nervous again, like she couldn't be the leader of this and that Kord or Dana was much more qualified. But as she thought of the sad face of Eli so worried about his mom, she knew she didn't have a choice.

She cleared her throat and hoped the words came out right. "As you all know, Blakk has somehow returned from the realm of the Dark Bain. And as I am sure by now that most of you have noticed that Eli Shane is currently not with us."

There was a murmur from the crowd, but Zaylee cleared her throat again and silenced them.

"We expect that he will return soon, but evil never takes a break, so neither can we. I have called you here because I need your help. Blakk is stronger than he's ever been and it's going to take more than a few vigilantes scattered throughout the caverns to stop him. By working together we stand more of a chance in protecting Slugterra from his evil plans.

"Things are going to be a bit different than you're used to. Blakk has an army bigger than we could ever hope to best, with slugs that we can't out match on our own. The only way to have a large enough army to defeat him is to ally ourselves with the Shadow Clan."

There was a loud murmur through the crowd. Zaylee had expected this response, but she knew it was their only hope.

"I know many of you have negative connotations to the Shadow Clan, but like I said, we need them if we want even the slightest chance at beating Dr. Blakk. You don't have to work with them unless we are staging a full frontal attack, but we need their help. I know you are all smart enough to realize that.

"They will be patrolling large stretches between caverns to try and keep Blakk and his men from becoming too mobile. The rest of you are going to be split into teams and assigned a cavern to protect.

"Remember, Blakk is dangerous. The fact that he and Diablos Nacho are here means that any number of Dark Bain could arrive at any time. Their negative energy alone could be enough to make Slugterra crumble. With their added power in their ghouls and dark water, we all need to be careful. For now, we aren't going to take an offensive stance, but eventually we will need to. So be aware, you've agreed to do this. It's a dangerous venture we are about to take on, but we need each and every one of you standing in this room right now."

Another murmur went through the crowd. Slingers looked at each other, questioning what they were getting into.

"We need all of you." Zaylee repeated. "Slugterra needs you, otherwise this world as you know it will crumble and fall. Blakk will rule in darkness and very few of you will survive more than a few hours if he is allowed to take over.

"I will be taking Eli's place as leader of the Shane gang. Dana, as the last remaining legacy you will be leading Pulse, Xia, and Mario. I've tried to split you all as best I can based on skills and leadership. King of Sling, you will be leading Bryce, Estevan and Cajun in protecting the farthest populated western caverns. Stalker, you will be leading Vance Bolt, Kathryn and Jaques. Your skills of stealth, technology and speed will be needed in the central caverns to keep Blakk's goons from making a presence there. Broodie, you and Waylon are going to take the southern areas. Harper, you'll be leading Fire, Frost, and Shockwire in the northern caverns."

She paired the remaining slingers up and assigned them caverns, praying that they'd manage to get along.

"You'll all be able to communicate with anyone at any time through the earpieces I'm handing out. Now, I might just be a kid, but I wasn't born yesterday. Blakk has spies everywhere, and by taking these communicators, you agree that you aren't one of his snitches. If I find out you are… I won't show any mercy." Zaylee gave the group a hard look as Trixie finished handing out the ear-pieces. The slingers all looked up and nodded in understanding, slightly afraid of the powerful young slinger with mysterious connections to the Shadow Clan.

"You have your missions. Head to Stony Brooke where my personal mechanic is waiting to upgrade your mechas and then Quiet Lawn for some blaster upgrades. We need every edge we can get against Blakk. I'll be in touch with all of you. Now, let's give them hell."

"For Slugterra!" Kord yelled.

"For Slugterra!" Roared the rest of the slingers.

The slingers disbanded in their new groups and Zaylee let her shoulders sag as the last one left.

Zaylee picked up her phone one more time. "They're on their way."

"A'ight lassie. You'd make your father proud right now."

"Thanks Amicus."

"Of course ye crazy Foxx! No lemme go to get ready for the army ye've sent me."

"You did great." Trixie smiled, suddenly beside her.

"Thanks." She smiled back. It was still hard for Zaylee to look at Trixie as her friend, but the past was in the past, and in reality, the red-head was a sweet girl.

"So what are our missions?" Dana asked. "You never gave us ours."

"That," Zaylee smiled grimly, "Is because we have the most dangerous ones of all."

**Life's no fun if you don't emotionally destroy your characters every once in a while huh? Hope you've liked the story so far, don't forget to leave reviews! Love you all!**


	9. Episode 20: Well, At Least We Didn't Die

"Most dangerous of all?" Dana smirked. "Of course you would Zaylee."

Zaylee gave a small shrug and a half-apologetic grin.

"You're the people I trust the most. Always have, always will. You're also some of the best slingers in all of Slugterra. And it's imperative that you are now." She looked at the seven people around her with a grim face. "I know the people we sent out can stop a few small attacks, but Blakk's army is much bigger and much more powerful. The only thing is- we don't know by how much. Dana, I want you to take your group to Blakk's fortress. You work perfectly together for a reason, and you are the only people I know who can pull this off. We need information and we need it fast."

"Of course." Dana nodded. For the first time in what Zaylee thought was forever Dana looked extremely serious about the task she was about to take on, and not the rebellious teenager that she had been since the day Zaylee met her.

Mario, who was standing as close as possible to Xia, and Zaylee's two other best friends nodded as well in understanding.

"Let's head out." Dana turned to her new team with a determined smile.

"What about us?" Kord asked quietly from behind Zaylee.

"We're going to be taking out some big guns ourselves." Zaylee held up her holo-pad. "Thanks to the power of the Slug-Net and people posting photos of Blakk's come back, I know exactly where a few big names in Blakk industries are having diner right now."

The remaining Shane Gang smiled mischievously at the older teen and they rushed out to the garage to their mechas.

"I have to admit, these new upgrades are pretty awesome. My mecha's never ridden this smooth." Mario smiled at Xia.

"30 kilometers to the Citadel," was the young elf's only response.

"I don't usually ride into here." Dana looked back at her friends. "Where should we put our mechas?"

"There's a nice hill with some secluded rocks not too far off." Pulse muttered. The cavern was already starting to take its effect on the poor Panthrope.

Dana nodded and followed Pulse's instructions.

"How do you plan to get inside?" Mario asked the pink-haired girl. "Not all of us are masters of stealth like you."

She gave a devious smiled and produced the Shadow Walker from her backpack. "Don't freak out, your first time will be a little disorientating."

The ex-tv star looked apprehensively at the green and black orb in Dana's hand, but complied.

"Zaylee, are you sure this is a good idea?" Pronto asked with a shaking voice as their group rode into Corkscrew cavern.

"Of course it's not a good idea, but we are the only people who are even close to capable of handling this."

"If you're so unsure, why are we even doing this?" Kord asked.

"Because someone has to." Zaylee growled, setting her sights on two of Blakk's top employees, Twist and Nicole.

The rest of the gang behind her shifted nervously.

"Guys," She turned to them, "If you don't believe we can do this, then there is no one in Slugterra who can. Have a little faith, we'll be fine."

Zaylee's friends still looked apprehensive, but they nodded.

"Hey Twist!" Zaylee yelled to the vagrant, who was harassing a street vendor, "How about a rematch?"

"What, you want to run in fear again?" Twist scoffed.

"It wasn't fear…" Zaylee muttered under her breath. "I believe you'll find us a much more formidable opponent today." Zaylee spoke louder.

"Oh really, and where's your precious Shane on this fine day."

"Don't need him." Zaylee shrugged.

"Really, I thought you two were connected at the hip." Twist sneered.

Zaylee tightened her grip on her blaster. "Care to put your money where your mouth is... Street rat?"

Twist let out an angry yell and fired a Jollyfist at the gang. Zaylee calmly shot it aside with a Thresher, wiping off a bit of the scattered goo that had landed on her mecha.

"Keep Nicole busy. I'll deal with Twist."

"You sure about that?" Trixie asked.

"Trust me, I've got a few tricks. Now hurry!"

Nicole was already halfway down the street as the Shane Gang revved their mechas to go after her. She turned to look back, her long dark hair whipping out behind her. She shot out a ghouled Arachnet before punching the throttle on her mecha.

Pulse was slowly leading their group through the grey halls of Blakk's Citadel.

"What are we looking for again?" Mario whispered.

"The main computer." Dana responded.

"Isn't that going to be heavily guarded?" Mario asked.

"Most of Blakk's men are out in Slugterra, not here." Xia whispered. "Now be quiet will you?"

Mario nodded and quickly turned away to hide a blush.

"Shall we?" Zaylee smirked at Twist.

"Please, like you could beat me."

"Oh, I don't know Twist, I have a feeling I have a leg up that you can't match."

Twist loaded Loki and in an instant his form was gone before Zaylee's eyes. Zaylee pulled out her own Thuglet, the dark red slug chirping in excitement. With the megamorph attachment, Optimus was supposedly as strong as any ghoul. She shot him and a sparkling illusion surrounded her. As the fake clouds gathered around her, she disappeared in her own black cloud of smoke, and landed smartly on a rooftop building.

Optimus' clouds disappeared and he was quickly by her side again. She tapped back into her shadow clan powers, and easily found Twist, his invisible form looking around for where Zaylee could have disappeared to. She loaded Rexy and shot Twist clean across the street into a trashcan. His illusion faded as Zaylee reloaded Optimus.

"How did you do that?" Twist sputtered.

"I have my secrets, you have yours." The teen shrugged.

Twist roared again in frustration and shot at Zaylee, but his Attachnet went straight through the illusion in front of him and just ended up creating a sticky mess on a light pole.

"This way." Pulse motioned to her friends.

Dana stepped into the computer room, lifting her wrist, ready to shoot at any guards.

"This place is uncomfortably empty…" She muttered.

"Then I suggest we get out of here as soon as possible." Xia headed towards the computer, sticking in her flash drive and typing in a few commands.

"There's a lot of info, so it's going to take some time." Xia informed the people around her. "But as long as we stay quiet we should be able to get out of here just fine."

"Catch me if you can!" Zaylee yelled as she shot at Twist again, suddenly appearing on her mecha.

Twist was easily able to avoid her slug, but he refused to give up an opportunity to catch one of Blakk's biggest foes, so he hoped on his own mecha and followed Zaylee away from the cavern.

"Dang, he's fast." She muttered to Optimus who was sitting on the head of her mecha. The slug nodded in agreement.

Zaylee held up her blaster and Optimus hopped in. "Thanks for working so hard today buddy." She smiled as she shot him again.

"Pretty fast mecha huh?" Twist grinned.

"Oh, sure, but mine's faster."

"Really, do you have one of the best mechanics in all of Slugterra fixing up your mecha?" He boasted, shining up the armor of his hyena mecha.

"Actually I have the best. So you better try and keep up." Zaylee winked, the illusion disappearing again, and Zaylee's real form appearing some kilometers in front of Blakk's second in command.

"You're not the only one who can mess with people's heads!" Zaylee laughed. "And just remember, whatever you try, I can do a million times better!"

Twist growled, shooting Loki and creating an army of himself surrounding Zaylee.

"Please, you'll have to do better than that." She scoffed.

Twist's army of illusions shot a Harmashelt at the silver mecha, but Zaylee easily hit the real ghoul, the rest turning into sliver dust. She countered with her Acus, making a considerable dent in Twist's mecha.

"Aw, Kiya's going to kill me for that!" Twist groaned.

Zaylee let out a triumphant laugh and carried on. She looked up to see the Shane Gang chasing Nicole along the path above them that led into the Shadow Clan territory nearby.

_Ready? _She reached out to Mfalme.

_Yes, we await our new guests. _Her kingly mentor replied.

"Hey, what are you doing here!" A grey-clad guard stuck his head into the large computer room.

"Crap." Danna muttered.

Mario took no time in loading his speed stinger and knocking the guy out cold with three consecutive hits to the head.

"Nice shot." Dana nodded.

"I might be new to this whole hero thing, but if there's one thing I can do, it's slinging."

"That's why you're on this team." Xia nodded, still facing the computer.

"Yeah, that's why Zaylee assigned me here…" Mario found himself blushing again.

There was noise coming down the hallway as more henchmen came to investigate their comrade's sudden attack.

"I thought they were all out!" Dana hissed.

"Well obviously not! We should just consider ourselves lucky we got this far!" Pulse backed away from the door.

"How much more time?" Dana asked Xia.

"Three minutes," Xia responded, obviously as worried as everyone else.

Zaylee checked behind her to make sure Twist was still following her. She continued until she was well inside Shadow Clan territory before she skidded to a stop next to Trixie's mecha.

"Well now that we have you all together…" Nicole panted, frazzled from the assault of the three Shane Gang members.

"Oh, uh, I hope you don't mind." Zaylee grinned deviously, "But I invited some friends."

Twist and Nicole's eyes widened as a large group of Shadow Clan creatures appeared behind the Shane Gang.

"Now, I do hope you will leave these poor caverns alone." Zaylee mocked the two Blakk employees.

Nicole took no time in zooming out of the cavern, not in the mood to deal with any more of the Gang's ploys today. Twist reached for his blaster, but an angry hiss from Razbo sent him after Nicole.

"That should give us a little time. Now let's get back, we've got more stuff to plan." Zaylee nodded to her friends.

_Thank you. _She looked at Razbo and Bellatrix.

_Of course. _The black and green female creature smiled.

"Let's roll out." Zaylee called. The Shane Gang followed their interim leader and headed out of the Shadow Clan territory.

And straight into a large army of Blakk's men.

"I've got this." Mario reloaded his Speedstinger as henchmen began to crowd the doorway. He shot ten of them down in one clean shot, but they were just replaced by ten more. Dana shot an Arachnet to block the doorway with a sticky web, but that only gave them enough time for the web to be burnt away by a ghouled Flaringo.

Mario picked up his Speedstinger as soon as it returned, knocking out another five henchmen, but now it seemed like the entire citadel was trying to get into the computer room.

"How much more time?" Dana asked again.

"Thirty seconds!"

Suddenly there was a loud growl at the door and Nacho burst through with a gatler on his hip.

"Oh that's not good." Mario frowned as he jumped out of the way of an barrage of angry ghouls.

"Can you go any faster?" Dana yelled at the elf.

"Five seconds!" Xia yelled back.

"Time to go!" Dana rushed over to the computer where Xia and Pulse were, narrowly dodging a Harmashelt as she pulled out her Shadow Walker. Mario followed, almost losing an arm to a Thrasher as he quickly stuck his hand on the mystical orb.

"Well," Dana let out a sigh as they transported back to the Shane hideout. "At least we didn't die."

Pronto screamed, Kord cursed, Trixie dropped her camera. Zaylee frowned deeply, more frustrated than anything.

"Now tell me you didn't think it was going to be that easy?" Twist sneered.

"Why would we ever get our hopes up?" Zaylee griped.

Twist laughed as a large Dragon mecha beast made its way to the front of the army.

"Oh that's not good…" Kord whispered.

"It has to be an illusion, right?" Trixie timidly asked Zaylee.

"It isn't," the older teen responded through gritted teeth. "Our only hope is to out-run them, but even with Amicus' upgrades, it's questionable."

"I suggest we take our chances with retreat." Pronto spoke up quietly.

Zaylee nodded in agreement. "Don't stay to close to each other, but don't stray too far either." She instructed. She watched the paw of the Dragon mecha lift into the air, ready to squash them all.

"GO!" She yelled shooting her Acus through the henchmen, creating a path the Gang could just fit through. She made sure her friends were safe before she revved her own engine, narrowly missing the heavy paw slam down on her. The ground shook beneath her as she shot a few slugs in retaliation as she bolted away from the group.

She felt the ground rumbling behind her as she shifted into supersonic mode.

"Dang, whoever built that mecha is a good mechanic." She looked back at the black dragon mecha beast, feeling a mix of awe and terror as the mecha and its rider were still close behind.

"Let's see if that big hunk of metal can maneuver as well as mine." She muttered to her slugs, loading her blaster as she quickly hung a right, catching up with Kord's mecha, which was in bike mode.

"Spare a friend a Bubbaleone?"

"What you got planned?"

"Need some extra suds."

Kord nodded with an understanding grin and loaded his blaster as well. The dragon mecha seemed to have no trouble maneuvering though the tight twist and turns of this cavern.

"Now!" Zaylee yelled. She and Kord shot their Bubbaleones at the mecha's feet. Zaylee gave a grim nod as the huge mecha spun out of control and slammed into a wall.

"That's only going to slow her down if anything." Trixie came up beside them.

"Do you know her?" Zaylee asked.

"Yeah, her name's Kaiya, we've had a few run-ins with her. She's a mercenary for Blakk." Kord informed her.

"Well her mecha's a force to be reckoned with for sure. We should try and minimize our run-ins with her."

"Don't have to tell us twice." Trixie scoffed as Pronto caught up with the rest of the gang.

"That could have gone worse." The Shane Gang's interim leader looked at her gang.

Zaylee's friends raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"Well, at least we didn't die." She smiled sheepishly.

**It looks like the Shane Gang could be struggling without the infallible****Eli! Stay tuned for what happens next!**


	10. Episode 21: Let the Truth Surface

**Omg I'm such a nerd when it comes to making titles for these chapters. Surface... I wonder what that could mean... Don't forget to review at the bottom! It keeps me motivated, especially as this semester comes to a close and I have lots of finals to pass!**

"Okay, I've had enough near death experiences for today." Mario griped, fixing up a gash in his armor.

"There's just too many of them." Pulse sighed in agreement.

Zaylee walked down the stairs as she finished a call to Broodie.

"Well, we've checked in with everyone." Zaylee let out a sigh of exhaustion. "Xia, how's the decoding going?"

Xia gave a noise of affirmation before returning to the work on her holo pad.

"Trixie?"

"I've sent out the latest information and plans to the respective people. Our plans of attack have all been mapped out and we're keeping a close eye on Blakk's movements. Problem is that there are more of them than there are of us. We've got about 50 slingers on our side excluding the Shadow Clan. I don't think that's enough to keep our footing for long."

"I hate to admit it, but we need Eli back. Even without really knowing what he was doing, he was good at what he did." Dana muttered.

"That's because he was a Shane." Pulse sighed.

"When is he coming back?" Kord asked. "It's been almost three weeks!"

Zaylee pressed her lips into a thin line. She probably missed Eli more than anyone, but she also knew more than anyone that the last thing on his mind right now was the fate of Slugterra.

"Zaylee, I want to talk to you… alone." Trixie's whisper broke into her thoughts.

Zaylee nodded, albeit a bit confused, and followed Trixie outside to the porch behind the hideout that overlooked the valley the house was tucked away in.

"We need Eli back."

"You're preaching to the choir." Zaylee huffed, leaning on the bannister and stroking Rexy in her hands.

"You fight so much better with him. And he'd be a huge morale boost for the rest of the slingers."

"Again, preaching to the choir." Zaylee muttered, feeling suddenly very nervous. She didn't know where Trixie was going with this, but considering some of their pasts, Zaylee suddenly felt very uneasy.

"You need to go to the surface world and get him."

"What?!" Zaylee yelled, almost dropping Rexy in surprise.

"You're the only other person in Slugterra that I know from the surface. You're the only one who knows where Eli is right now. Slugterra needs him now more than they ever have before."

"So you just want me to leave you all here?"

"We can take care of ourselves for a day or two." Trixie smiled. "Getting Eli back would be worth it."

Zaylee shifted nervously.

"Don't worry. He's yours." Trixie smiled, seeming to read her thoughts.

Zaylee sputtered again.

"Please, it's so obvious." She smirked. "And I know he likes you too. That's why you need to go. If anyone has a chance at talking sense into him, it's you."

"I don't know… my track record's not that good." Zaylee's entire face suddenly felt like it was on fire.

"I believe in you." Trixie smiled. "I know you're a great person, you've done a great job of leading the Shane Gang these past few weeks, and you've always helped us out in the past in ways that only you are capable of. I know you're willing to do anything to get what you want, and we both know you'll have to try everything to get Eli back. And I want you to do _whatever_ it takes."

Zaylee blushed, realizing what Trixie was implying.

"Well, considering the facts and situation, I really can't say no." Zaylee shrugged. "Let's just set up some things so everyone is taken care of for the next few days and then I'll head out." She put Rexy on her shoulder and headed back towards the hideout. "You sure you guys will be okay without me?" Zaylee looked questioningly at Trixie.

"We'll manage." Trixie nodded affirmatively. "This is more important."

Zaylee nodded in agreement. "Whatever it takes." She promised.

After her last experience on the surface, she thought she'd never return. Zaylee shifted uncomfortably in the seat of her mecha as she looked up at the recently re-opened hole that connected Slugterra with the surface world. She scratched at the surface clothes she had tossed on to make journey back up. The red hoodie was a lot tighter than it was when she had first come down here and the fabric was scratchy and uncomfortable against her skin. And the jeans she had found that actually fit were horrible. How did she ever consider these comfortable before?

"Alright guys, it wouldn't be fair to the Shane Gang if I took you guys with me," She looked down at her and Eli's slugs. "I know you miss Eli too, but the gang needs you here." She smiled down at their squeaks and chirps.

"Rexy, Ivy, you're all I need now. Let's bring Eli home."

She loaded her Vinedrill in her blaster and added the megamorph upgrade.

"This should make it a lot easier on you than last time." She smiled reassuringly at Ivy. The green slug was a strong Vinedrill among others, but the climb to the surface was taxing at best.

"Grab the chair too, that'll make getting back a lot easier." Zaylee instructed the slug as she shot the slug at top speed. The teen hopped on a green vine, letting it carry her up to the drop zone.

"Good job Ivy." She called down to the slug as she dismounted and the vines began to recede. Zaylee doubted the slug could hear her, but it was the thought that counted.

"Alright Rexy, let's go bring Eli back," She set her jaw as she placed the slug on her shoulder and made her way back to the manhole that separated her from the old neighborhood she and Eli used to call home. "There's just one thing we've got to do first."

Zaylee took a deep breath in as she shifted the manhole cover back into place. The surface smelled so much different than Slugterra. And there was actual weather. And the sky. Zaylee looked up and grinned. As beautiful as the caverns were in Slugterra there was nothing that could beat the starry night sky above her head now.

"Don't know what a full moon means for us Rexy, but let's just hope it's good."

The slug chirped back in agreement. Zaylee scratched at her hoodie again and pulled the hood up, hoping no one would recognize the teenager that had supposedly moved to Russia to finish her schooling.

She walked the familiar streets down to her house. The garage lights were on as she expected. Zaylee wasn't ready to see Eli quite yet. There was one person that could counsel her on what to do though, and that was a visit long overdue.

She lifted a timid hand to knock on the door at the back of the garage, unsure if it was even heard, but there was a clanking of metal tools as a pair of heavy footsteps made their way to the door.

"Zaylee!" A well-built man in a yellow plaid flannel shirt opened the door and enveloped the girl in a large hug.

"Hey dad." She smiled, returning the hug.

"What are you doing here?"

"I came to get Eli." She informed him as she walked into the garage.

"Of course not to visit your old man." Her dad scoffed.

"It's been horribly busy." She sighed. "We were fighting Blakk, and then there was this evil scientist organization called B.E.E, and then we thought we'd beaten Blakk, but now he's returned from the realm of the Dark Bain, and it's just been ridiculously crazy."

"Could never get rid of that damned man," Zaylee's dad muttered at the sound of Blakk's return.

"Yeah, and then Eli got the letter that Mrs. Shane was sick."

Her father grunted, "Yeah, it was pretty tough for a while. Your mom was taking good care of her, but Liz insisted on letting Eli know. You know those Shanes, all so stubborn."

"Believe me, I'm well aware. But she's better now?"

"On the mend, like I said, your mom was taking care of her."

"And managed still doting on that other child?"

"You're still sore over Jameson?"

"Yes." Zaylee practically spat.

"Let it go, it was a good thing to do." Her father raised an eyebrow at her.

Zaylee shrugged and found herself a seat on her dad's work table. "Anyways, I stopped by because I did want to say hi, but because I also need advice on how to convince Eli to come back. We haven't stood a chance since he left. Blakk's too powerful, and there are just too many henchmen. I don't know where he gets them all."

"Well, Eli's just as stubborn as any other Shane. No one really knows he's back, so I guess you could use the threat of him getting re-discovered in the neighborhood."

"That wouldn't be good enough."

"Try the whole fate of the entire planet."

"Tried that one before he returned to the surface." Zaylee shrugged.

"Well aren't you just the tactical genius?" The older man laughed at her. Zaylee smiled in return before going back to thinking.

Her eyes wandered around the work area as she thought before resting on an old photo, years before her time.

"Who's that?" She asked.

"Hm? Oh that's your great-grandma."

"That's strange… she looks like she's in Lumino Cavern…" Zaylee looked up at her dad.

"Micah." She glared, using his first name to make her point. "What have you been keeping from me?"

"Well dear, I wasn't the first Foxx to go to Slugterra." He sighed.

"Why does she have traditional Shadow Clan markings?" She stared intently at the faded picture. "Is this where our Shadow Clan powers come from? What have you not told me? I thought Will was the only one who kept things from his kid!" She turned abruptly to her father, her face demanding answers.

Micah sighed, looking down at his stubborn daughter. "Your great-grandmother's name was Joyce Foxx. She found her way down to Slugterra somehow, I'm not that sure on all the details." Micah paused, choosing his wording carefully. "She fell in love with one of the Shadow Clan members, I think the name was A'zuran."

"A'zuran was king before Mfalme! Are you telling me I'm freaking related to Mfalme!"

Micah's silence was all the conformation Zaylee needed.

"So that's why I can do all those things like talk to the Shadow Clan and teleport." She answered herself softly. "Why did you never tell me?"

"It wasn't revealed to me until I was much older. My mom and one of her brothers returned to the surface with the help of Jimbo Shane and vowed to never go back. They stayed close with the Shanes though, and that's how I got to know Will, but she never told me anything of Slugterra. After I followed Will down there, I don't think she ever forgave me. Don't know why she hated the place so much, but she did."

"So I have relatives in Slugterra?"

"I'm not entirely sure on that one. If you do, I don't know where."

"But I am related to Mfalme?"

"Yes, you are."

Zaylee ran a hand down her face and scratched the fabric of her red hoodie again.

"They tatted you huh?" Her dad nodded to the bit of the black ink that was peeking out on her wrist.

"Yeah. So where's yours?" She asked challengingly.

"What I have left of it." He grunted, pushing up his sleeve past the prosthetic arm that he had lost to a Thrasher in a battle with Blakk.

Zaylee looked at the intricate markings that weren't much different than hers.

"So you could transport too?"

Her dad nodded.

"Were you able to- talk to slugs?" Zaylee asked timidly.

"I could understand some of it, but that might have been from spending so much time with them." He picked up Rexy off Zaylee's shoulder. The slug happily hopped into his previous owner's palms and chattered excitedly about all the adventures he had had with Micah's daughter. Micah smiled back at the slug and scratched the small spines on its back.

"That's not the prosthetic arm you wear in the house is it?" Zaylee asked, suddenly looking harder at her dad's arm.

"You're just going to throw every curveball you've got at me, huh kiddo?"

Zaylee simply raised an eyebrow at the man.

"No, I had Amicus build me this one so I could still use both my hands in the workshop." Micah admitted. "I think your mom would be too uncomfortable with this one. But I love it." He smiled holding up the chrome and yellow arm for Zaylee. "Amicus got it to connect to my brain waves somehow so I can use all of my fingers as if they were the real deal." He grinned widely and wiggled his fingers. Zaylee tried not to freak out too much at the robotic arm.

"Did he make you anything else?" Zaylee questioned him.

Micah pressed his lips together.

"Stop hiding things from me!" Zaylee exclaimed in frustration. "Show me." She demanded.

"That's no way to talk to your father." Micah sternly looked at his daughter.

"I just don't want to feel like I'm in the dark. I want to believe you're a better father than Will."

"Now that's a low blow. To both of us."

"Hey, we both know Will was never upfront with Eli."

"Will Shane had to make a lot of tough choices. He didn't want to burden Eli with those."

"Well, then why did you keep this all from me?"

"Mostly the same reason. A human-Shadow Clan relationship wasn't exactly accepted back then."

"It wouldn't be accepted now."

"Exactly. And you know just as well as anybody that secrets are there to protect those that matter most."

Zaylee nodded, remembering that no one else knew about her ability to transport.

"But Mfalme will take care to teach you the rest of their customs if you're ready." Micah continued. "Right now though, you need to save Slugterra."

"Can't do that until I get Eli." Zaylee reminded him.

"Of course, so what are you waiting for?"

"Show me the other thing." Zaylee insisted.

Micah sighed, but relented, getting up and walking to a corner of the garage that had a few boxes haphazardly stacked. He took the one off the top and brought it back to the work table. It was a thick black case that looked like it was more for holding guns than prosthetic arms.

He flipped the top, revealing three foam indents. One for the arm he was wearing now, his prosthetic arm he wore around Zaylee's mom and something that looked like an extremely long barreled yellow and sliver blaster.

Zaylee lifted the yellow barrel out of the case slowly and looked at her dad with wide eyes.

"You weren't… were you?"

Micah sighed. "I was considering the possibility. But I decided that I needed to spend more time with my family." He paused, taking the blaster and putting it back in the case. "One of Amicus' best works if you ask me, it was the literal definition of your blaster being the extension of your arm." He chuckled, Zaylee did not.

"I couldn't bear to get rid of it, even after I had decided to come back here and be with my family instead of staying in Slugterra." Micah let out another low sigh. "If I had known how much you wanted to go, I wouldn't have even mentioned to your mom that I had even thought of staying here on the surface. But I love her just as much as I love you, even if you don't feel the same way about your mom. I knew it was time for you to carry on your legacy, I just wish I had been by your side for it. I miss you Zays, you know that?"

"I miss you too." Zaylee whispered, discreetly wiping some unwanted moisture from her eyes.

"You're making me proud though kiddo."

Zaylee smiled and gave her dad a tight hug. "I try my best for you."

"And now you need to make me proud again." Micah smiled pulled far enough back to see his daughter's face. "You go get that stubborn Shane and save Slugterra." He placed a small kiss on Zaylee's forehead.

"Will do dad." She smiled, hugging him tightly again. She slowly released the embrace, suddenly feeling a little homesick. But she was here for something much more important. She waved goodbye as she closed the garage door behind her and headed down the street to Eli's house.

"Well Rexy, this is it." She sighed, looking at the nostalgic house in front of her. She shifted her hoodie again, but instead of knocking on the front door, she hopped the fence to the back yard.

"Just like old times Shane." She muttered quietly.

Elizabeth Shane was washing dishes looking out at the back yard when she saw someone in a red hoodie hop the fence. She was taken back at first until she realized who it was. The teenager gave a small wave and Liz waved back.

"Eli," she called, "There's someone here to see you."

"What, no one knows I'm here!" Eli looked up from the scrapbooks he had been flipping through in the living room.

"I'm pretty sure one person does." She poked her head in the room, looking rather smug.

Eli raised an eyebrow, looking at his mom that he had been taking care of the past month. She was still a little thinner than usual, but her hair was starting to grow back and she was definitely active. He still couldn't bear to leave her. He'd really missed his mom.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Don't leave her hanging."

Eli still sat on the floor looking up at his mom.

"I'll be fine; you don't need to worry about me." She rolled her eyes at her son. "I'll be right here catching up on my soaps."

Eli relented and went to the back yard.

Zaylee felt her heart leap into her throat as she saw the back door creak open and Eli descend down the steps.

"You should be in Slugterra." He looked at her pointedly.

"And so should you." She retorted.

"I need to help my mom."

"She looks fine to me, and my mom's taking care of her."

"What the heck Zaylee, insensitive much?!"

"I'm not trying to be! But you're needed in Slugterra! I know you've missed your mom and that you love her, but if you don't go back, Slugterra's going to fall! We can't beat Blakk without you. We need you Eli."

"Yeah, and my mom needs me too."

"Eli, I don't think you get it. If Slugterra falls, so does the ground we're standing on now. The earth will collapse on itself like one huge sink hole, no one will survive. Helping your mom will be for nothing. I know how much your mom means to you. I wouldn't be able to stand it if something happened to my dad. And I certainly wouldn't be able to live with myself if it was my fault because I couldn't stop some maniac a hundred miles below our feet. Eli please, we need you."

Zaylee looked into her best friend's eyes, but was met with stony resistance.

"Here." He handed Burpy to Zaylee. "He'll help you out more than I can right now. I need to make sure my mom's okay."

"That's not true! I want you Eli, not your slugs!"

Burpy made an offended noise at Zaylee. "No offense buddy." She quickly corrected herself to the orange slug.

"I'm staying with my mom." Eli repeated resolutely.

"Eli, please." Zaylee begged again. "We can't do this without you. We need you, I need you. I'm not as strong without you."

"What does it matter? We couldn't beat Nacho and Twist."

"So you've just given up?" Zaylee almost yelled.

"No, but I'm not going to be any more help than you already have. You said you had an army of slingers."

"Barely 50! Against 5,000! They need to see a Shane; they need you fighting for them! They need someone who is so amazing at slinging that it inspires them to give 110 percent! Eli, we can't do this without you."

"I'm not going, and that's that." He placed Burpy on Zaylee's shoulder next to Rexy. Both slugs pouted at him, but Eli just gave them a sad smile and shook his head.

"Just remember all your friends are down there." Zaylee said quietly, suddenly very nervous. Trixie had told her to try everything, but now that she was looking up at her best friend and crush, the task seemed much more daunting now.

She swallowed hard, closed her eyes tight, grabbed Eli's t-shirt in her hands and pulled him down into a hard kiss. Zaylee counted to five, the number of seconds Trixie had advised, before pulling away and stepping out of Eli's reach.

She tried to look as serious as possible and not mirror Eli's flustered face, "I'm down there too."

Eli reached a hand out, but before he could even make sense of what had happened, she was gone.

He raised a tentative hand to his lips standing by himself in the darkness.

"You shouldn't let her leave like that."

"Mom!"

"Eli, she's right, Slugterra needs you."

"You were listening?!"

"Zaylee's always been a loud girl, it's hard not to." Liz smiled.

"I'm not leaving you." Eli repeated, hundreds of emotions swirling across his face.

"I'll be fine, the hard part is over." Liz's smile was sweet and motherly and Eli couldn't bear to leave his mom again, but after what just happened… that kiss…

"I need to think about this." He said quietly.

"Alright, well do it inside, you don't want to catch a cold."

"Mom, it's September."

"Come on inside dear." She insisted with her motherly smile.

Eli nodded and smiled back, following his mother inside.

Zaylee walked slowly into the Shane hideout, unsure of what she'd find. She smiled at Kord, Mario, Dana, and Xia all asleep on the couch. She assumed Pulse and Pronto were asleep together somewhere else.

"Well?"

Zaylee was so startled she almost pulled her blaster on Trixie.

"What does it look like?" Zaylee muttered dejectedly.

"You tried everything?"

Zaylee nodded. "What are you still doing up?"

"Checking in with all the other teams. Zaylee, something bad is happening. And it's going to be big. There aren't enough of us."

"Sometimes the smallest armies win because of strategy. Get some rest and we can talk about this in a few hours."

Trixie nodded and smiled at her friend before heading upstairs.

Zaylee ran a hand down her face and sighed. "You had almost a month to get him back down here, but I only have you for some reason." She looked down at Burpy. The slug stuck his tongue out in offense. "Then again, I wasn't any more successful. And now," she bent down and picked up some of the papers the Shane Gang had been looking at on the coffee table. "Now, we're in more trouble than ever before."


	11. Episode 22:To Hell & Back for a Champion

**So if you guys haven't noticed, I'm updating really regularly now. Finals week has be wanting to do anything but study. So I hope you're ready for our story to come to a head, because it's getting really intense in Slugterra. I hope you enjoy it guys! Review and leave me requests for other stories! I don't want to study!**

Zaylee snuggled deeper into the sheets, trying to ignore her alarm.

"No, I don't want to go for a run today…" She mumbled to no one in particular. She never wanted to leave this bed. She had been sleeping in Eli's room more and more often since she had taken over the Shane Gang; it was her escape for when things got overwhelming, which was almost all the time. It smelled like Eli, the room looked like Eli's personality, and he had the most comfortable mattress, even if it was much smaller than the one in her apartment.

"Not going to run today…" She mumbled again as she reached for the snooze button. And then the alarm was much louder and emanating from the computer downstairs.

"Of course." Zaylee grumbled as she stumbled into her clothes and gear and shuffled downstairs.

"Blakk's on the move. It's time." Xia said as she silenced the alarm.

"Call everyone." Zaylee forced herself to stand up straight and wipe the sleep from her eyes. "I'm going to get the Shadow Clan, just send me the coordinates okay? We will all meet there and decide which attack plan we're going to choose."

The teens nodded as Zaylee headed out to the mecha garage. "I'm not even home for five hours," She sighed, counting to make sure she had all of her and Eli's slugs on her. "Let's go guys," she smiled, making sure she was far enough away from the Hideout before transporting to her mentor, and new found relative.

_Secrets are there to protect those who matter most, huh? So what did you think you needed to protect me from? _She couldn't help but confront Mfalme, even if the entire fate of Slugterra was currently on the line.

_I didn't feel like it was mine to tell. _The Shadow Clan leader looked down at Zaylee.

_Well I believe you have many stories to tell. _Zaylee huffed. _But now is not the time, now is time for us to take the offensive._

_And will you be revealing your secrets young one?_

_I don't think I have a choice. _Zaylee sighed. _Let's move out._

Mfalme roared to alert the rest of the Shadow Clan, and with a blip and a cloud of smoke, they were standing amongst the rest of the slingers.

"So this is the position you've chosen?" Zaylee asked Trixie.

"It's our best bet, we'll try and take out as much as we can, the valley gives us room to trap them. Kathryn is working now to take out the tracks."

"They'll be coming by train?"

Trixie nodded. "From what Xia and I could figure out, they're moving some big parts. We think it's for another drill between Slugterra and the Dark Bane's realm. And everyone is there. Kaiya, Twist, Nacho, Bull, Blakk, everyone."

"Well, this should be fun." Zaylee frowned. She turned on her communicator to talk to the entire group. "Alright guys, listen up. Things aren't going to be pretty, but we can't let Blakk get away with this. Spread yourselves out around the rocks, but don't get too close to the valley. The Shadow Clan and I will make things hell for them down there."

"You sure you want to do that?" Kord looked at the teen questioningly.

"Guys, honestly, I haven't been that honest with you. And I can do more than talk to the Shadow Clan, so just believe me when I say that I'll be fine."

Her friends looked more confused than before, but Zaylee let the subject drop, they'd know soon enough.

"The tracks are out, and by my calculations, we've got about two minutes." Kathryn's voice came in over the communicators.

"Alright guys, you heard her, get into a safe position and then we're going to give them all we've got and then some."

The first minute was chaos of gangs finding places to station themselves around the area. It warmed Zaylee's heart to see everyone working together. She stood next to Mfalme in a small cave in the side of a rock face. _I am proud of you my child._

_Thanks, let's just hope this works out._

_If you believe in yourself and your friends, everything will be fine. And your family will be right beside you as well. _Mfalme gestured to the Shadow Clan members standing behind them.

_Yes, my new very large extended family. _Zaylee smiled up at Mfalme.

The next minute was dead silent, everybody waiting with baited breath, listening for the sound of the Slugterranean express to come through the valley. No one moved, no one said anything. Then the sound of a train engine could be heard racing towards them. Everyone watched as the huge hunk of metal sped into view and winced at the screeching sound of the driver pulling on the breaks as to try and avoid derailing where the space of empty tracks were.

Blakk looked up from his paper and tea as the train jolted to a halt.

"Why are we stopping?" He growled.

"According to the engine room, the tracks are missing." Maurice reported to his boss.

"The Shane Gang." Blakk hissed.

Everyone's eyes were glued to the stationary train.

"Wait until a good amount of henchmen come out." Zaylee's voice was barely above a whisper. She couldn't tell if her hands were shaking in anticipation or fear, but it was going to mess up her aim if it didn't stop.

You could almost hear everyone hidden in the hills freeze as Blakk stepped out of the train first, followed by Nacho and Twist who were both carrying huge gatlers.

"Wait for the henchmen to start coming out." Zaylee repeated, trying to keep her voice as calm as possible.

"We're waiting for you Shane." Blakk's voice boomed across the cavern.

"My sentiments exactly." Zaylee muttered.

"This is going to quickly become a stalemate if someone doesn't do something soon." Trixie warned her leader.

"I know. Everyone hold your fire. They've got us outgunned and we don't want to waste our slugs. And like I said before, I haven't been entirely honest with you, so what you're about to see… yeah, just don't freak out." Zaylee finished with a sigh.

_Are you sure you want to do this? _Mfalme looked down at the teenager.

_Don't really have a choice. _Zaylee sighed. She was gone in a blip and suddenly feet in front of Blakk. She heard a quiet collective gasp over her communicator. The three in front of her looked surprised as well, but hid it much better.

"Is it just you three today?" She tried to calm her nerves with sarcastic banter.

"My dear, there are scores more of us than there are of you."

"Won't believe it till I see it." Zaylee shrugged.

"Well, I suppose I can grant you that _final _request."

"You're too kind." Zaylee growled as hundreds of henchmen began filling out of the train and Blakk lifted his blaster to Zaylee's chest.

"Can't kill me that easy." She winked as she disappeared. Blakk let out a growl annoyed with the sassy teenager.

"Fire at will." Zaylee told her slingers and suddenly the valley erupted in a barrage of transforming slugs.

_It's time to do our part. _Zaylee looked at the Shadow Clan. The elegant creatures made their way to the valley, slinging slugs at henchmen, and scaring away a good number as well.

Zaylee began weaving her way in and out of the carnage in the valley, shooting as many henchmen as she could, trying to get a good shot in at one of the big names. Then a rumble was heard from the train and the huge dragon mecha burst through the doors.

"Not you again." Zaylee frowned, rolling out of the way to avoid being crushed by one of the mecha's heavy paws.

She shot her Acus at the huge mecha, but it didn't even leave a dent.

"That's not good." She frowned, transporting herself from her spot milliseconds before three ghouls collided together where she had been.

"They're blasting our vantage points to smithereens!" The King of Sling's voice buzzed in her ear.

"Hold out as long as you can! We can't let them get away with whatever is in that train!"

"Well how do you plan to get that piece?" Broodie asked.

"We will, just hold on a bit longer!"

"The gatlers are destroying us!" Kathryn exclaimed.

"Well don't let them get you! Just keep firing back until we can get a clear path to the train!"

_If only Eli would come back… _Zaylee thought to herself.

_Keep your head up child. _Mfalme's voice cut through her thoughts.

_It's getting bad, especially with Kaiya. _Zaylee referred to the huge dragon mecha that was brutally tearing away the cliff walls everyone else was stationed on.

_We will take care of her. _Mfalme promised.

_I hope so, be safe though. _Zaylee frowned, transporting again before another near miss with a few megamorph ghouls.

"We need to get enough of them down so we can get to the train."

"And how do you plan to do that?" Brodie asked.

"Just keep shooting." Zaylee tried to hide her frustration at the situation and the slingers she was leading. She had pushed them hard and they were probably as tired as she was, but now was a bad time for a dip in morale.

The teen tried to get in a few shots at Twist and Nacho, but there were just too many slugs flying around for her to get a clean shot.

She had chosen a slightly higher vantage point, clinging on to a small ledge on the rock face when she got distracted by Burpy's chirping from her shoulder.

"No buddy, I don't want to shoot you just yet." She muttered to the slug as she fired her Vampenkyeko to try and subdue some of the henchmen. She sent up a small prayer for the precious slug's safe return.

Burpy was chirping again on her blaster. Snoop had joined the orange slug as well, both excitedly trying to relay something.

_Can you give me a translation? _She reached out to Mfalme who was busy trying to keep Kaiya and her large mecha from destroying anymore of the rocks the slingers were positioned on.

_Take a moment and listen for yourself. _

_I don't have a moment!_

_Make one._

Zaylee growled at Mfalme's cryptic response, but disappeared back to the small cave she and Mfalme had been standing in before the fight.

"Okay guys, what's up?" She looked down at the slugs who continued to chirp at her. The noises made no sense to her and the mess outside kept her from fully focusing on the two slugs. Even more of the slugs were excited now too, and adding all that more to the chaos.

"If only Eli were here…" She finally let herself say the words out loud.

The slugs all let out one loud chirp and everything finally clicked for Zaylee. She quickly fumbled around with her ear piece to make sure it was turned off so she didn't distract the rest of her slingers.

"Eli!" She exclaimed at the slugs. "He's back? Are you sure? You know for sure?!" Her heart began to race even faster than it had been in the fight as the slugs chirped in affirmation.

"Alright, let's do this with a bang. Snoop, you're first, you go find Eli and get him here. The rest of you, I need you guys to go out with some heavy hits and then catch up with Eli. You up for it?"

Eli's slugs smiled and nodded determinedly, hopping back into the cylinders on her belt. Zaylee quickly transported back into the fray, hopping not too much had gone wrong during her absence. It looked just as chaotic when she left it. She just hoped her small group of slingers was hanging in there. She started with her Fimber, reminding the slug to hurry in finding Eli before she started attacking every henchman in sight with Eli's powerful slugs.

"Let's give 'em all we got!" Zaylee yelled, loading Burpy.

"That's what we've been doing!" Vance Bolt complained.

"And we're getting low on slugs!" Shockwire interjected.

"Guys, we can do this!" Zaylee exclaimed. "Just a little longer… please." She muttered as she aimed Burpy at Nacho.

"Give it your all buddy," She told the slug. Burpy looked back and winked before Zaylee pulled the trigger, shooting the fire slug at megamorph speed. The blaze turned to a hot inferno around the Dark Bane before Burpy sped off to follow the rest of the slugs.

"I need you guys to trust me," Zaylee tried to rally her troops, "I told you this wasn't going to be easy, but we just need a little more time." She quickly dodged an angry ghoul from Twist's gatler, retaliating with an Arachnet.

"Zaylee, there are just too many." Kord finally admitted.

"So what, are you just going to give up? Run away with your tail between your legs? Let Blakk have the victory and let Slugterra fall into darkness? I thought you were proud to affiliate yourself with the Shane Gang! Are you floppers? Or are you slingers today?" Zaylee yelled, angrily hitting a henchman in the head with the titanium butt of her blaster. "Can you honestly live with yourselves if you give up now?" She screamed, aiming another slug at Twist, shooting through five of his annoying illusions as she did so. "Just hold out a bit longer, I need you to trust me. That's all I ask."

"Until our slugs run out." Mario promised, shooting his Speedstinger. Zaylee watched it bounce off multiple henchmen, knocking them to the ground before faithfully returning to its owner.

Eli stood beneath the drop. Had he really made the right choice? Was his mom going to be okay? She had insisted she'd be fine, but resistance ran in the family, she could have been lying. In fact, it took her and Zaylee's dad practically shoving him down the drop to get him to return to Slugterra. The expanse before him looked peaceful. Zaylee had been worrying for nothing. He'd just get Burpy and go back as soon as possible. He picked up his duffel bag and began the walk to the Shane Hideout when he received a smart hit in the nose.

"What the- Snoop? What are you doing here?" Eli looked down at the gold Fimber as he readjusted his nose. "Where's Zaylee?" The slug stuck his tongue out at the Shane. Before Eli could even give a retort his slugs were quickly coming to him one by one, the last, Burpy, a blaze trailing behind the slug.

"Guys, you should be with Zaylee." He looked at the slugs. They all shook their heads and hopped onto their beloved owner.

"Alright, let's go gear up and then we'll sort out whatever's going on." He picked up his beloved friends and headed in the direction of the Shane hideout.

"Zaylee we can't get a clear path to the train! We need a plan B!"

Zaylee held her retort because she hadn't really come up with a plan B. She hadn't expected this much resistance when Trixie had told her what they knew. Most of the henchmen were down or had been scared off by the fearsome Shadow Clan, but Blakk's top fighters were enough to keep the heroes at bay.

"Alright, we're going to make this more focused. Trixie, you guys go for Twist. When you and your slugs need a break, King of Sling you guys will take over. Dana, focus on Nacho, he's going to be a tough one so rotate with Broodie and Stalker. Everyone else, focus on that damn Dragon Mecha. The Shadow Clan will take care of the rest of the henchmen. I'll try and keep as much of the fire aimed at me to give you guys a break. We'll storm the train when I say." Zaylee hoped this new last-minute idea would work, but she wasn't in the least bit sure.

Eli rode LK-E through Slugterra, following Snoop's golden trail. The rush of wind and the thrill of riding the powerful mecha beast helped reduce some of his trepidations of leaving home again. He and Burpy shared a huge grin, happy to have each other's company again. That grin quickly dissipated as he finally reached his destination.

The scene before him was total carnage. Slingers were taking cover from a massive barrage of ghouls, but cover was diminishing by the second as the ghouls hammered the rocks. He saw his friends and quickly rode up to them.

"What's going on?" He asked.

The gang's eye's widened in surprise and excitement.

"Switch!" Trixie yelled before turning off her communicator.

"You're back!" She squealed.

"Took you long enough." Pronto huffed. "Do you see the mess we're in?"

"Where's Zaylee? What are you guys even trying to do?"

"Blakk's trying to rebuild the drill to the Dark Bane." Kord informed his friend. "And Zaylee? Down there." He jerked his head towards the valley. Eli peeked out behind the rocks to see Zaylee transporting between Blakk's best, trying to avoid crushing claws, angry ghouls as well as trying to get a shot in.

"What is she doing?" Eli asked incredulously.

"We really don't know." Trixie informed him, stroking her Tormato as it returned to her. "I'm sure it has something to do with the Shadow Clan, but she never told us."

"I'm going down to help her." Eli decided.

"We're glad to have you back man." Kord slung a heavy arm around Eli's shoulder before the young Shane hopped over the shielding rocks and slid down towards the valley.

Zaylee tried to get another shot in at Nacho. The Dark Bane retaliated with five angry ghouls. "Annoying, pretentious little-!" Zaylee exclaimed before having to transport herself out of harm's way.

A henchman at her feet was coming to after being knocked out by one of her slinger's slugs. She hit him in the head with the butt of her blaster, putting him out for another good couple of minutes.

"We can do this all day!" Twist laughed. "Can you?" He challenged.

"Watch me." She growled, shooting her Acus at the teen. Kaiya's big mecha beast's foot moved just in time to protect him.

"I've had it with you!" She yelled up at the dragon. It's jaws swung around at her and she had only seconds to transport before it's metal teeth snapped at the air where she had been.

She was frustrated and tired and just needed one good hit for this to work, but none of the slugs being fired into the valley seemed to be doing any damage.

"Eli!" "It's Eli Shane!" "He's back!"

The words buzzed in Zaylee's ear. She smiled widely, her heart ready to burst. Burpy and Snoop had been right. Well she knew they were, but the fact that Eli was here sent so many emotions wild in her head that she couldn't handle it.

Almost to the point where Kaiya's dragon got another good snap at her.

She transported herself just in time, re-materializing in the air to attempt to get in a decent shot at Twist who was still working at decimating what was left of her allies' vantage point.

"You!" Twist shouted, aiming his oversized gun at the Shane.

Zaylee's head quickly spun around to where Eli was, trying not to smile as she transported over to him and then transported the two of them out of harm's way.

"How are you doing that?"

"Long story," she winked, "I'll tell you later, right now we need to get in that train."

"How do you intend to do that?"

"Working on it…" Zaylee pouted, "You'll want one of these." She handed him a communicator which Eli put in his ear. "I'm officially stepping down as leader, Eli Shane, it's all you now."

"Woah, woah, I have no idea what's going on." Eli put his hands up.

"Time to move." Zaylee interjected, grabbing Eli's hand and transporting out of the line of fire again.

"We need to get inside the train." Zaylee repeated.

"Can't you just transport or whatever you're doing?"

"Not if I don't know where I'm going."

Eli sighed. "This is what I come back to."

"This is why you shouldn't have left."

Eli opened his mouth to respond when Trixie's voice cut in on the communicator.

"I'm sure you have plenty to catch up on, but we're dying here!"

"Trixie, you guys focus on the big baddies, try and give Eli and I a path to get to the train." Zaylee commanded. "As soon as we get a path, everyone else get out of here. We'll meet the Shane Gang when we get out."

"Stepping down as leader huh?" Eli teased. Zaylee just sneered in response.

"Hope you haven't gotten out of shape since you've been gone Shane."

"Don't underestimate me."

"Yeah, well don't underestimate them." Zaylee warned.

"I think I can get them!" Kord buzzed in.

"Then don't hesitate." Zaylee said.

"Are you thinking of doing what I think you're thinking of doing?" Xia asked.

"We'll be fine, just stay safe."

"Safe as we can." Dana grumbled.

"Ready when you are Zay." Kord said.

"Fire," The word was calm, but Zaylee's heart was going a mile a minute. She watched the slugs fly through the air and darted after them. Eli was close behind, jumping over Twist as he struggled to get back on his feet after Kord's Armashelt knocked him square in the jaw. Twist hefted the gatler back up and turned the fire on Zaylee and Eli as they just managed to slide into a train door.

"So what are we looking for?" Eli asked.

"Terra drill parts."

"That's not good."

"No kidding. I didn't want you to come down for shits and giggles Eli, bad stuff is happening here, and it's only going to get worse."

Eli nodded solemnly. "Let's head towards the front."

The two headed in the direction, kicking down doors and dispatching the few henchmen who remained.

"Nothing yet." Eli frowned.

"There's a few more cars left." Zaylee said loading Spike to blast down a particularly obstinate door.

There was a crash of metal and a flash of ghouls. Zaylee quickly rolled into the room ready to disarm the guard until she realized who it was.

"Maurice?" She wondered aloud. Wasn't he out in the battle?

The confusion was enough pause for Maurice to take a swing which Zaylee quickly ducked, swinging up her leg to bring a heavy kick to his jaw.

"Do you always have to be so aggressive to my henchmen?" A snide voice echoed from behind a large chair on the opposite side of the car. "You're going to force me to raise their workers comp. A nuisance more than anything really."

"Blakk!" Eli exclaimed.

Zaylee let out a loud gasp. He was supposed to be in the fray. How could she have not noticed his disappearance?

"I'm getting older," Blakk seemed to read her thoughts. "These joints need a break every once in a while. And Eli, how nice of you to finally join us."

"Can't say I'm happy to see you again." Eli retorted.

"Where are the drill parts?" Zaylee yelled, getting straight to the point.

Blakk let out a menacing laugh.

"My dear, I'm always one step ahead."

Zaylee raised an eyebrow in query.

"Do you think all these henchmen were to protect a few drill parts? Look at the train, it's not equipped to hold all those pieces and hundreds of fighters."

"No…" Zaylee's eyes widened.

"Yes dear, so while I was tiring you and your measly forces out, two of my most incompetent employees, Locke and Lode, took a different route and the drill is being assembled as we speak."

"No!" Eli yelled, pulling his blaster on Blakk. Blakk responded by taking his gatler out from underneath his desk.

"Always one step ahead," Blakk laughed.

"Time to go," Zaylee grabbed Eli's arm and transported back to the hillside where the slingers were hunkered down trying to survive the aggressive barrage of ghouls.

"We need to get out of here. I'm calling a retreat."

"What, why?" Pulse looked at her friend confused.

"Move now, questions later, scatter!" She yelled running back to her mecha. Everything had gone horribly wrong today.

Except for one thing. She glanced back at Eli and couldn't help the small smile that creped onto her lips.


	12. Episode 23: Little Talks of Big Things

**Short chapter but I had to put this little bit in! Love to all my readers guys!**

"Well that was a complete disaster." Mario sighed collapsing on the couch.

Zaylee sat in silence staring at the coffee table with extreme intensity, her leg bouncing a steady rhythm. Blakk had duped her in the worst way. And she didn't even notice when he had disappeared from the fray. She didn't know how something so integral could have slipped her mind. What did that say about her as a fighter? As a leader? She felt as if that one mistake personified the disasters that had happened over the last month.

"There's no way we could have known." Dana put a hand on her shoulder, unsure of how to console her friend.

"But what can we do now? Blakk's leagues ahead!" She suddenly stood up. "I've done everything, and it wasn't enough! A terra drill? Sure the Shane Gang stopped it once, but a second time? You don't think Blakk's prepared for that too? I just don't know what to do anymore!" Zaylee's voice cracked as her friends all looked at her with stunned faces. She stood frozen for a moment before running out of the hide out.

"I'll go talk to her." Xia said calmly, rolling her chair away from the big computer.

"Let me." Eli stood up.

Xia shrugged and went back to work.

Eli walked outside, finding Zaylee leaning on the porch banister behind the hideout.

"Zay-"

"You left at the worst time possible." She stated without turning around. "I'm not cut out to be a leader. I've tried the best I can, but this is bigger than that. I might be strong, but I'm not a Shane." The tears were obvious in her voice.

"Zaylee, you're the strongest girl I've ever met-"

"I don't know how you do it. You best Blakk over and over again, but once you leave, it's like everything goes to hell."

"In my defense, you've been MIA at some pretty critical moments too."

"But you still managed to do it!" Zaylee exclaimed, finally turning to face him. "But now everything is so lost, there's just no way!"

"Zaylee, there's always a way." Eli stepped forward, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder. Zaylee immediately froze at the contact.

"I'm sorry I left, but family is so important to me, you know that." Eli took a finger to lift Zaylee's chin so she was looking him in the eyes. Zaylee could hear her pulse in her ears. "I'm here now," he smiled, "and we're going to do this together."

Zaylee wiped away a stray tear and nodded. She turned back to lean on the railing again.

"How long have you been able to teleport?" Eli asked, moving to lean next to her.

"Since I came back from the western caverns."

"You didn't tell anyone?" Eli looked and raised an eyebrow at her.

"It wasn't the right time. I didn't know why I had these strange connections with the Shadow Clan, and abilities like transportation are a strong asset to have against an enemy if they don't know about them."

"Mfalme never knew why you had those abilities?"

"Oh he knew." Zaylee scoffed. "When I went up to talk to you I stopped in at my dad's. Apparently my great grandma or something fell in love with one of the Shadow Clan chiefs. My dad wasn't the first Foxx to travel to Slugterra."

"That's a pretty big detail to leave out of the family history."

"It's not accepted here. It wasn't the right time. Secrets are to protect the things and people that matter. And when someone needs to know something, they'll know."

"Is that so? To protect? And is there anything else you're keeping from me?

"Nope." Zaylee lied. "Let's head back inside, everyone else wants to talk to you I'm sure."

Eli hesitated as Zaylee faked a smile and returned to their friends. Burpy gave a loud squeak from his feet.

"I know, I know, once things calm down. But she's not ready yet." Burpy squeaked again. "I don't know when she'll be ready, but we've got too much on our plate right now with Blakk. Come on, let's go see everyone else." Eli picked Burpy up and placed him on his shoulder as he followed Zaylee inside.


	13. Episode 24: Storming the Citadel

**Last one! (For now) Heaven knows I'll have more. Writing is so much fun and I just love this story so much. So by now, you should know I do ship my OC Zaylee with Eli, so if that's not your thing, this story might not be for you! (Just saying-no spoilers). But thank you to everyone who has read this story and made me feel so special about the work I put online. I hope you've enjoyed Zaylee's story so far and that you will join me for more in the future!**

"That plan sounds impossible." Mario looked incredulously at Eli.

"Well impossible is what we do."

"And you're sure we don't need anyone else to help us out?" Pulse frowned.

"The less attention we can bring to ourselves, the better."

"What do you think Zaylee?" Dana looked at the teenager who had remained silent for the past thirty minutes.

"I think it's our only option." She sighed, leaning back. Her friends all looked haggard and she knew she had faired the past month no better. "Someone's got to do it, and we're the only ones crazy enough to try."

"Right then, Dana- we'll see you guys back here when the job's done." Eli looked at Dana and her temporary team. The pink-haired girl nodded solemnly and she turned to head out, her friends behind her.

"I hope you know what you're doing bro." Kord warned.

"Not in the slightest," Eli shrugged. "But I know we're the only ones who can do it."

"Pronto believes it can't get any worse, so we might as well." The Molenoid shrugged.

"And the Shadow Clan?" Trixie looked at Zaylee.

"They know. They'll be there when we need to tear down the drill."

"Then let's head out." Eli said standing up and grabbing his gear. The rest of the team followed.

Their mechas tore through the roads to Blakk's citadel. Zaylee's anxiety built with every minute. There was just no way. She hoped Dana was taking care of the rest.

"This is extremely dangerous." Mario repeated for the 50th time.

"Tell me something I don't know." Dana shot back at the ex-star.

"In here," Pulse signaled. Xia nodded and set to work at the key pad.

"You've only got one shot to set off the chain reaction." Xia reminded Mario. "And two minutes before the alarms go off."

"I only need two seconds." Mario set his jaw. He lifted Zaylee's wizened Boon Doc in his blaster and aimed for the cone-shaped light at the center of the room.

"Fandangos at the ready." He said quietly. The sound of blasters being loaded could be heard behind them.

"Now." The word was a calm command as Paeon flew towards the light, his abilities being amplified by the Fandangos. The cone fixture directed his healing power across the room as green and blue energy danced across the walls.

"How do we know if it worked?" Dana asked.

"We have to open one." Pulse said grimly, raising a claw to one of the large barrels in the room.

"Step back." She commanded. Everyone quickly moved out of the way. She slashed the barrel, blue water spilling out.

"One dark water site neutralized, five to go." Xia confirmed. "We need to hurry. They'll be suspicious after this. And if any of the Dark Bain does manage to get here, their powers will be amplified by how much Dark Water is left." The rest of the team nodded as the door slammed shut to the storage unit.

"Let's hurry so we can get Paeon back to Zaylee." Dana nodded. They mounted their mechas and sped to the next site.

"Storm the citadel you said," Kord grumbled, "It'll be fun you said, it'll be easy you said." The cave troll rolled out of the way of a megamorph Attachnet.

"Never said anything about easy." Eli grinned. Kord just sneered back at his friend.

Zaylee didn't even roll her eyes at their banter. She was focused. She had to redeem herself after the train fight. Nothing was going to get past her. She felt her chest heaving with exertion as the last henchman in the hall fell unconscious.

"Zay, you gotta relax some. If you get too tense they're going to get to you." Eli put a hand on his friend's shoulder.

"I'm fine." She shrugged him off. Eli frowned but headed on.

"According to our maps of the citadel and our information from the last time it happened, the drill should be downstairs and a couple rooms west." Pronto informed him. The Molenoid was surprisingly serious for the occasion and lead them towards the stairs.

All of Zaylee's senses were on high alert. Every dust bunny was a potential threat. Every dark corner could be hiding a camera.

"Zaylee they're getting into your head, relax." Eli insisted.

"I'm fine." She repeated.

She picked up on movement heading down the corridor; a band of thirty or so by her guess. She thanked the gods that Blakk hadn't gotten a hand on any of B.E.E or Erimda's files. But knowing him, be barely considered them a threat.

She loaded her blaster the energy core whirring to life.

"Zay, you're freaking out over nothing."

Ghouls volleyed their direction and Zaylee shot them down with a clean hit of a Bubbaleone.

"Am I?" She countered, firing Rexy and taking out a few more henchmen.

"I'll give you this one." Eli smiled, expecting Zaylee to smile back. Not a single muscle in her face twitched.

Kord's Aquabeek countered a few Amperlings in a megamporph explosion of power.

"How long are we going to have to keep this up?" Trixie asked, dodging some grim version of a Hop Rock.

"Until we get to the drill." Eli grunted. "That's the goal."

"That's the last of them. Let's move." Zaylee barked, dispatching the last henchman with her Rammstone.

Eli thinned his lips but followed Zaylee.

They wound down the stairs quietly and quickly and down the hall.

"Can't say I've been in this part of the citadel before." Trixie whispered.

"Me neither." Pronto quivered, "But we have the map!"

"Quiet." Zaylee hissed.

"Zaylee, can you please relax a little?" Eli growled, beginning to get fed up with her demeanor.

Zaylee shot an arm out to keep the young Shane from moving any further.

"Listen. You guys need to get to the drill, the Shadow Clan will be there when you get there. Dismantle the drill, get rid of Blakk and Mfalme will get you out of there safe."

"I know that. What do you think you plan on doing?" Eli hissed back.

"Nacho," Zaylee nodded her head at the now visible hulking mass of Dark Bane moving towards them.

Eli's eyes widened. "This is about the train isn't it?"

"No! Well sort of, but that doesn't matter! If we all fight him it'll be too late. You need to run and get past him now!"

"What, do you have something to prove?"

"That doesn't matter! Go!"

"The train is over, done, and gone. We need to do this together!"

"Divide and conquer! I'll meet you there! You're the Shane Gang! Go!"

"You're as much a part of us as anyone else on this team!"

Zaylee groaned in frustration. Nacho was well into firing range, but it was clear he was going to use this argument to his advantage.

"Just go!" Zaylee yelled firing her Acus at the Dark Bane, momentarily grounding him.

Trixie took the cue and dragged the still angry Eli after them.

"Just you and me buddy." Zaylee grinned.

"You can't beat me. You never have." Nacho's menacing voice rumbled through the hall. "What makes you think you can now?"

"Watch me." Zaylee sneered, firing her Thuglet and creating a shiny illusion of a horde of her.

"Not a new trick."

"But enough of a distraction," Zaylee smiled as she fired her Flaringo next, followed by her Hop Rock.

Diablos was able to dodge the fire or the Flaringo but the Hop Rock was able to get a good hit in at his shoulder. Zaylee didn't hesitate, aiming her Armashelt for a nicely aimed headshot.

Nacho stumbled back, but he wasn't out.

"You wanted your Boon Doc back?" Dana's dark voice asked as she materialized next to her.

"Thanks," Zaylee smiled as Paeon hopped into her hand. "Now get out of here."

"You sure you guys don't want any more help?"

Zaylee shook her head. "You've done your part, and I assume with amazing success. Now go home and get some rest."

Dana reluctantly nodded and disappeared again.

"What's different is you were too confident. And I've got this." She turned with a triumphant smile to the Dark Bane. She loaded Paeon and shot him at Nacho. The Dark Bain screamed in agonizing pain before passing out. "Now let's send you back you where you came from."

Eli and the rest of the Shane gang sped into the designated room where the terra drill was supposed to be.

"I have to admit I'm surprised it's actually here." Kord mused looking at the dark contraption that took up over half the room.

"Of course it is," A menacing voice dripped from a dark corner. "I've done a lot of things Shane, but I wouldn't lie to you about this."

"Blakk." Eli instinctively growled, loading Burpy in his blaster.

"Wait a minute, why didn't you lie to us?" Kord asked.

"A wonderful question cave troll, so glad you asked. But isn't an easy guess? I've gotten what I want out," He stepped out of the shadows with a large army of Dark Bane, "So naturally I decided it was time to send a few _nuisances_ in."

"This is bad." Pronto gulped, catching on.

"No kidding." Eli frowned.

"Always one step ahead Eli Shane, and now I won't have your bratty gang in my way."

Eli could feel himself backing up when suddenly there was a loud hiss behind him. Eli quickly glanced behind him to see a large group of Shadow Clan members behind him.

"Looks like that evens the playing field a bit, huh?" Eli smiled.

Blakk roared angrily. "Attack!"

The firing began between the two sides, a mass of energy and destruction exploding in the room.

"My work!" Quentin exclaimed as he ducked for cover.

"Get Doc ready!" Kord yelled at Eli.

"He's ready I just need a shot!"

"How about some cover?" A familiar voice spoke from behind him.

"Done with proving yourself?" Eli sneered, watching her almost effortlessly toss Nacho at another Dark Bane.

"You want me to cover you or not?"

"Please and thank you." Eli smiled briefly as he dodged an angry ghouled Rammstone.

Zaylee smiled, hitting a Dark Bane square in the face before quickly dodging a violent ghoul.

"There's just too many!" Trixie cried.

"We've done this before, we can do it again!" Eli yelled.

"Oh I wouldn't be too sure about that boy." Blakk yelled, pulling a lever that aimed the top half of the drill directly at Eli. "Quentin has made some wonderfully useful upgrades to the original model."

"Finally someone appreciates my work!" Quentin yelled from under the desk he was using as his hiding spot.

"Quiet boy." Blakk hissed.

_This is bad. _Zaylee reached out to Mfalme.

_Just do your part. We have it covered._

_I hope you do._

The drill was beginning to whirr to life. It was the most grating, ear-splitting noise Zaylee had ever heard.

"Take out the controls!" Eli yelled to Kord.

"Yeah, as soon as I get a chance!" Kord's sarcastic yell came from a far corner of the room.

"I didn't think Quentin could pull this off…" Zaylee frowned quietly.

"Well I think I have an idea if you're willing to work together." Eli glared at his friend.

Zaylee gave him a guilty look. "You know it's not my strong suit, but I think considering the circumstances, I could manage." She gave him a sly grin.

"There's the Zaylee I know! Now, Trix, you and the Shadow Clan flank the Dark Bain into the south corner of the room. Pronto, keep Quentin from getting involved. Kord, you need to head for the controls and get the drill aimed at Blakk. Zay, you take his left, I'll take his right."

Zaylee nodded and rolled to the left, unleashing her arsenal at Blakk. The man was not to be caught unaware, and grabbing a henchman's blaster, began to take her and Eli on simultaneously.

"Believe me, you two will run out of slugs before I do." Blakk sneered.

"You are just such a joy to deal with, I hope you know." Eli said.

"Oh believe me boy. I always intend to be very memorable."

Suddenly a Hop Rock whizzed in between Zaylee and Eli, catching Black in his shoulder. He stumbled a bit, giving Eli enough time to fire Burpy and surround Blakk in a column of flame. Zaylee looked behind to see Trixie smiling proudly.

"They've got the Dark Bane surrounded." Trixie nodded to Mfalme. "I think Mfalme appreciated your Boon Doc." She tossed the green slug to Zaylee who skillfully caught Paeon and put him back in her belt.

"I'm glad that it worked."

Trixie nodded in agreement and lined up another shot at Blakk.

"You won't get away with this boy!" Blakk yelled leaping at Eli, ignoring his burning clothes.

"Fall back Eli!" Kord yelled, struggling with the equipment to move the large drill.

"We need to get him to stop moving!" Trixie said as she dodged a Thrasher.

Blakk let out an inhuman growl and charged at the teens.

"If Xia was here this might be a little easier!" Kord complained.

"Yeah, well I don't know what you want me to do about that one right now!" Zaylee yelled back, her eyes darting between the Shadow Clan and Blakk. The Dark Bain were gaining their strength back and she knew they were running out of time.

_Is the drill already in reverse? _Razbo's voice suddenly cut through Zaylee's worries.

"I think so?" She said aloud, attempting to shoot her Acus at Blakk.

_Have the cave troll overload the circuitry and then get your friends out of here._

_What's that going to do?_

_Create a temporary warp hole- that may or may not destroy half the compound. _

_Well that sure sounds exciting._

"Kord they want you to overload the circuits!" Zaylee relayed Razbo's idea.

"That sounds like a horrible idea!" Pronto piped up as he ran from a robotic Rammstone.

"It'll be fine, just do it and get over here!" Zaylee yelled as she pulled Trixie away from a fast moving Hop Jack.

"Will it get all of them?" Eli asked.

"I think so, Razbo said that it should destroy half the citadel."

"I'll take you with me if I have to!" Blakk growled, pouncing on Eli.

Kord yelled something intelligible as he pulled some random lever down so hard the handle came out, exposing sparking wires.

"My work!" Quentin yelled in despair as he fled from the room. The whirring got louder and the light of the drill became blinding. The Shadow Clan quickly took their leave. Eli was struggling against Blakk's mass and the two were slowly slipping towards the drill.

"No!" Zaylee yelled. She flipped her blaster around and hit the titanium butt directly into Blakk's temple. He stumbled back, releasing Eli. He held his head looking dazed.

"Let's go!" The teen yelled. Her friends grabbed on to her arms and she focused all of her attention on getting all six of them out of there. The bright light faded to black and then their feet hit the ground of Eli's quiet hide out.

"We did it." Trixie's voice was so quiet Zaylee wasn't sure she had heard it at first.

It felt like they all let out a collective breath they didn't know they had been holding as they released Zaylee's arms. They were all so stunned.

"So what, does that face mean you beat him or not?" Dana's voice made them all jump as she walked out of the kitchen eating a sandwich.

"We beat Blakk." Eli smiled.

"Nice," she walked up to her fellow legacy and gave the Shane a hi-five. "We should go out to celebrate tonight. Everyone else is still freshening up, and I suggest you do the same." Dana wrinkled her nose mockingly. Kord chuckled and then the whole room broke out in laughter, whoops and other noises of joy as the team's victory finally sunk in.

Later that night Zaylee was leaning over the second floor balcony of Pulse's favorite club. Her hair was down and the ends tickled her bare shoulders. It still felt all so surreal.

"Hey, there you are."

"Oh hey 'lister." Zaylee looked behind her as Eli walked to stand next to her. "What's up?"

"Not much, wondering why you're missing out on some of the craziest partying ever. Kord's crowd surfing right now."

Zaylee laughed. "I can only imagine that ending poorly."

"Yeah, so what are you doing out here?"

"Just needed some air." Zaylee smiled.

"Very unusual for you."

"We've had an unusual day."

"Which reminds me," Eli's face suddenly turned very stern and Zaylee felt her stomach drop. "What was up with you wanting to beat Nacho to a pulp?"

Zaylee bit her bottom lip. "I just wanted to make sure the job got done. It would have taken too much time if we all were messing with him."

"Okay, no but really."

"Personally? I just want everyone to be safe. I got a lot of people in a bad situation with the train." Zaylee let her hair fall in her face. "I don't like being played, and it was about time that someone put a serious hurting on that pain. But it was more than that, I promise. Mfalme wanted me to test a theory and that theory helped us save the day."

"Well hey, stop worrying me by doing crazy stuff like that on your own, okay?" Eli reached a hand out to brush Zaylee's hair back. She felt herself blush.

"You're one to talk." She managed to counter.

"You've got me there. So how'd you manage to do it anyways?"

"The opposite of Dark Water is Slug energy right? Well Mfalme and I came up with this idea that a Light slug like Doc or Paeon could seriously do a hurting on the a Dark Bane. And it turns out we were right."

"No kidding. That information would have come in handy a lot earlier though."

"Hey, it was just a theory, we didn't even know if it would work or not."

"I'm glad it did."

"Me too." Zaylee smiled. Eli smiled back.

A silence fell between them and Zaylee resumed looking out at the cavern below them as the loud base rumbled through her feet.

Eli looked at his best friend next to him. She looked so serene. She was wearing a strapless black dress that hugged her in all the right places. It was simple, nothing fancy, but he could swear she was glowing. He had known since Zaylee had run off to the western caverns that she liked him, and he had felt his feelings snowball into something so intense it burned every time he looked at her since then. It was just that neither of them had ever acted on it. Until last week.

The kiss had felt like an eternity ago, but so fresh at the same time. He had replayed the moment a thousand times over in his mind, trying to figure out what she wanted. The question was burning in his head and Eli had to know. He felt like his heart and stomach were doing acrobatics with each other as he tried to figure out how to best phrase the question.

"So about the kiss… what did you mean by it?" Eli internally grimaced as soon as the words came out.

Zaylee felt her heart freeze and her whole body heat up. "I missed you." The words were honest but she knew that wasn't the answer Eli was looking for.

"That much huh?"

Zaylee felt like she was shrinking under her best friend's gaze. She turned away blushing hard.

"Do you still like me Zaylee Foxx?"

"Still?! Who told you what?"

"I'll give you two guesses."

"Figures," Zaylee pouted, knowing exactly who had told him. "I mean yeah I like you, but I didn't know if you liked me, and we've just been so busy trying to save the world and…"

"You should know by now that I like you. And I don't think the timing's ever been better."

Zaylee looked at the ground between them, trying not to freak out.

"So, would you like to be… a thing?" Eli reached his hand under Zaylee's chin and lifted her eyes to his.

"Y-yeah, I'd like that." Zaylee smiled. "But maybe a little bit more than just 'a thing'", she joked.

Eli chuckled and placed a small kiss on her forehead and Zaylee found herself smiling widely.

"Come on, we should make sure Kord and Pronto haven't broken anything."

"In a minute." Zaylee smiled. She looked up at Eli with sparking eyes reaching up to give him a tender kiss. Eli smiled, wrapping his arms around her waist, reveling in the feeling.

"So what's our next big adventure Shane?" She joked as she pulled away.

"Who knows, but won't there be plenty?" He laughed, lacing their hands together as he led her back inside.

"Knowing you, absolutely."


End file.
